A Sirius Unicorn
by HorseLoverTW
Summary: During the Marauders' seventh year, a strange girl shows up at Hogwarts. She doesn't know much about people or fitting in for that matter, but it's understandable because afterall she is a Unicorn.
1. Chapter 1

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Be nice if I did though

A/N: This takes place in the years of the Marauders. Any mistakes made by me to the canon are unintentional. In my story, unicorns are a lot smarter than they appear to be in J.K. Rowling's books. When I reach the end of this story, Hopefully, it will have become AU. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1. Land of the Unicorns**

The Black Forest never seemed to change. The rich green leaves were always full and the tiny water droplets on them seemed to always catch the last of the sun's rays before they journeyed to the forest floor. The trees always swayed gently in the afternoon breeze, and the Unicorns always ran joyfully through the trunks as though they were not earth bound creatures, but angels on the wind.

On this particular day, the two Unicorns appeared to be in fear. The joy that usually sprang eternal inside a Unicorn was being drown out by the dark hooded figures that chased them.

One of the silvery Unicorns turned to the other and spoke, as only a Unicorn can speak-through their minds, and said, "Go on Athena, you're the one they're after! I'll hold them off. You go tell your mom to get everyone on alert. It's finally happening."

The other Unicorn seemed to roll her eyes at this and exclaimed, " Aramos, get over yourself! You may be the Queen's guard, but that doesn't make you mine. I can stay and fight them if I want!"

Sighing with exasperation, Aramos nodded. Abruptly stopping and turning around with his horn low in a fighting stance, he almost lost Athena, who was so shocked that he had agreed, she had to double back.

Now both Unicorns were squaring away with the ten or more black cloaked figures.

"Careful!" One of them shouted, "We don't want to kill their princess, the Dark Lord has big plans for her!"

Precisely as he said this, Athena shot a _stupefy_ spell through her silver horn directly at the man. It happened so fast, he had no time to dodge and was hit directly in the chest. Before he had even fallen to the ground however, the others in his party began firing off spells of their own.

As Aramos and Athena began racking off spells, six Unicorns came up from behind them and began firing off their own spells into the midst of the hooded figures. The one nearest to the pair said, "A scout alerted us to their presence. The Queen requests that you two head back to Summer Palace immediately. We will take care of these, but she fears that _He _is coming. I suggest you hurry!"

With that, Aramos looked pointedly at Athena and turned tail to ran back in the direction the six had come from. Athena fired one more curse and reluctantly followed.

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"What took you two so long?" An ancient translucent Unicorn said as Athena and Aramos came galloping into the stone walls of a pearl colored castle at the summit of a modest hill overlooking a lush meadow in the middle of the forest. This Unicorn had an air of wisdom and inner strength. Though her body appeared worn, and her white coat more of a creme, her horn glistened brighter than any other Unicorns. Her name was Queen Arabella Skydancer, leader of all Unicorns, and more importantly, mother to the rebellious Princess Athena.

"Aramos thought it prudent to defend our kingdom single-handedly, and I happened to disagree." Athena said as she flashed Aramos an annoyed look.

"And as I was doing _my_ duty to protect our kingdom, Athena thought it smart to join me, so I couldn't very well leave her." Aramos said and then proceeded to shoot Athena a winning smirk.

Athena began to glare at Aramos as he continued smiling.

"Enough you two! We have bigger problems to worry about. I believe the Alanair Prophesy made over a thousand years ago on my birth is about to be fulfilled." With a grave look, Arabella pulled out one of the long silky hairs of her mane and threw it up in the air. She then struck it with her horn and stepped back. The hair formed a circle and began to glow gold. "This is a Unicorn's form of a pensieve. As I'm sure you two both know by now, a pensieve is a devise used by wizards to store and view their memories. This particular memory happened on the night of my birth. My mother Alanair predicted that my death would bring about the end of the queens and possibly that of all Unicorns. She also stated that my murderer would be a human by the self proclaimed name of Lord Voldemort."

"So you're saying it's your time to die, and there's nothing we can do to stop the destruction of our kind!" Athena shouted, close to tears, her horn glowing blue from the horrible thought.

"But that's not all, Athena. Put your horn through the golden circle and see for yourself."

Athena, more out of curiosity than being ordered to, did as she was told and pierced the illuminating sphere. She felt an immediate tug and found herself staring at her grandmother Alanair as she lovingly gazed at her new foal, Arabella. Athena found it very strange to be here witnessing her mother's first moments. She shifted her view back to her grandma and found Alanair's eyes to be a startling blue instead of the usual warm chocolate brown.

_"On the death of the Queen Arabella, the last of the Unicorn Queens, a new beginning will be formed for all Unicorns. The murderer Voldemort will go unstopped, unless- she- can summon the strength needed to vanquish him."_

Alanair then looked up directly at where Athena was standing and her eyes returned to normal. She then continued to coddle her tiny filly, who looked distinctly petrified at her mother's sudden peculiar outburst.

Still trembling from the experience, Athena felt the memory fade and she found herself once again looking at the elderly vision of her mother.

"So now you know the importance of what is happening right now." Arabella said with care. "I have, from the moment you were born, thought that you are the _she_ spoken of in the prophesy. My time is nearing. But the Unicorn's is not. I believe it is imperative that you go somewhere safe for the moment. Somewhere where an old friend of mine that knows of this prophesy can help you realize it."

"And just who might this old friend be? Alydarr? Or maybe my long lost father Anikon? Hmm? No Unicorn can help me now!" Athena nearly screamed, the sarcasm in her voice becoming panicky. Aramos looked troubled at her mention of his dead father, Alydarr, who had been the protectorate of Alanair.

"You're right Athena, no _Unicorn _can help you now. But I didn't say he was a Unicorn. Albus Dumbledore is a wizard. Probably the most powerful of our time. He is the headmaster of a school for young witches and wizards up in Scotland. Hogwarts is where you shall go."

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It was nearing midnight and the pearl white walls of Summer Palace appeared to glow in the thick darkness that enveloped the forest at night. Aramos stepped out of the main entrance with a pale white rider clothed in an elaborate indigo cloak clinging to his neck.

"Shut up Aramos! I know how hysterical I must look without you reminding me every three steps." Athena whispered as she clung even tighter to his mane as he began to trot away from Summer Palace.

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They were leaving for the castle of Hogwarts, after Adair and the rest of the guard had come back from the skirmish in the woods with what they had been told were Death Eaters. Arabella had decided that they should leave that night. She had then given her daughter a sparkling silver ring with a tiny portrait of a Unicorn running engraved on one side and a running girl on the other. The flowing hair and eyes of the Unicorn and the girl had looked exactly the same. When Athena's hoof came in contact with the ring, she had magically changed into the exact picture of the running girl on the ring that now appeared on one of her new pale fingers. Arabella then called in Aramos who had brought forth the sacred riding cloak used by the Goddess Athena when she rode Pegasus. With Pegasus being retired, Athena had given the cloak to the Unicorn Queen, Arabella, saying that when the time came, she was sure to find good use for it.

When Aramos shyly offered the beautiful cloth to the strange new pale form of Athena, Arabella had explained, "This was given to me by your name sake, the Goddess of wisdom and horses, I pray that it will bring you luck, my filly." Arabella then left followed by a reluctant Aramos, who given the opportunity looked like he wished to investigate the fair golden-haired maiden his childhood friend now appeared to be.

Athena had always known that the stallion Unicorns were unconsciously attracted to fair young maidens. She supposed it was something innate that went back to the dawn of time. She never, however, expected her best friend Aramos to look at her like that. It was down right unnerving.

As she lay in the lonely room getting accustomed to her new body, one of the palace servants came in with a piece of shiny mahogany wood.

"My lady Athena, the Queen told me to give this to you. It's a wizard's wand. She says the core is from her own tail."

"Thank you Antarion." He nodded, and turned around to leave, but Athena added, "Oh, and could you possibly find me some shoes, I think I'm going to need them now that I'm hoofless."

After he had gone, Athena unsteadily walked over to the large mirror that had hung in this room for as long as she could remember. On the top of it, an inscription read '_Earth hath no vain richer than that at the core of a Unicorn mare'_.

She thought the old mirror to be daft, for as she looked at what had to be the new her, she saw an awkward human girl staring back.

Her once flowing silvery mane had been replaced by an alien dark blond and her snowy white coat was now a striking pale. The only thing that remained the same, as far as she could tell, was her eyes. They were the same intense combination of green and blue. Her mother had once told her when she was still a filly that her eyes would always be warring between the forest and the sky.

Carefully, she turned away from the mirror image that she refused to think of as her own and headed out of the royal stall to seek her mother out for more answers on what her future had in store for her. She only tripped on the indigo cloak twice.

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Looking back on it, Athena thought as she struggled to keep her balance on the broad white back of Aramos, this whole thing was insane. When Athena had finally found her mother, she had noticed that Arabella seemed to have called in her entire guard. They were in the middle of a briefing and Athena had found it very appropriate at the time to ease drop.

_"If he comes, we won't be able to stop him, my lady. I believe the best course of action is to evacuate Summer Palace immediately and get you to Winter Stronghold."_

_"No Adair, he's after me. Voldmort seeks to gain the support of the Unicorns for his cause. Or annihilate us, whichever he finds to be easier." Arabella gave a grim smile at this and continued, "No, I will be staying here. If Voldmort wants me than he shall have me, though not without a fight I assure you. I want everyone else to leave at once to Winter Stronghold. I pass my authority to Adair, for the time being." Arabella then turned to Adair and said, "As acting ruler your first orders will be evacuation then relocation. After you are all set up in Winter Stronghold I want you to keep out of sight. The survival of the Unicorns depends on this. Your true ruler will return when the time is right and give the next orders. That will most likely happen in a year's time."_

_Silence had permeated with the last of her grim orders, and with a brief nod of dismissal, all captains had filed out looking forlorn. Adair had given Athena a respectful bow when he passed, but had then preceded to carry out his duty. The evacuation of hundreds of Unicorns would not be easy. _

_Athena stopped herself from entering the meeting room when she saw Arabella privately talking with Aramos. By leaning in just a little closer she was able to hear her mother's loud whisper._

_"You will not be going with the rest Aramos. I need you to safely deliver Athena to the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Leave tonight. Upon leaving the school, I wish you to tell Niome to keep an eye on Athena. Also give him my regards. After that, head to the Stronghold and help Adair. I have a feeling he will need it."_

_"Consider it done, however, I don't follow your need to stay here. It's suicide." Aramos said, the worry in his eyes carrying through to his voice. _

_"After he finishes me, I doubt he will pursue the rest of you. It will give Athena time to discover her power and a chance for the rest of you to regroup. It's not suicide, it's sacrifice. It's my duty as Queen."_

Athena had run back to her stall, her tears splashing along the familiar walls of pearl. By the time Arabella had come in to check on her, and throw her out, Athena thought ruefully, she had regained her composure. Before Arabella left the room, Athena had called out, "Wait mom!" Had run up to her mother and threw her awkward human arms around the sleek neck of the Unicorn Queen. "I just wanted to tell you before I leave, that I love you." Athena choked out, tears starting to form again.

'That was probably the last time I'll ever see her,' Athena thought as she ducked under a branch Aramos had decided to trot under.

"You were listening in on the meeting weren't you?" Aramos asked suddenly, breaking the unusual silence that had settled around the old friends.

"Well, you know me. I can't stand not knowing everything that's going on." Athena said lightly, hoping he would take the hint that she really didn't want to talk about it.

"I don't think Arabella knew that you were listening. You handled it very well. I know that must have been hard saying good bye."

"Who's Niome?" Athena asked changing the subject. Losing her mom was not something she felt like crying about, again.

"He's a thestral. The leader of large herd that resides in the Forbidden Forest. I dare say you'll be hard pressed to sneak anything past him. So don't even think about trying to get to Winter Stronghold." Aramos said. Athena could almost imagine seeing his familiar smirk at the thought of her being cowed around by a thestral.

"Like I'm sure. Anyway," she said, deciding that another change of subject was in order, "What's Hogwarts like?"

"It's been a few decades since I was last there, but I doubt it's changed. The school itself is a magnificent castle. Though I have to say, it's got nothing on Summer Palace. The grounds our wonderful. I think you're going to like it."

"Why were you ever there?" Athena asked, slightly surprised by her best friend's new mystery.

"I was on duty protecting your mom at the time. I think you were away at Spring Meadow. No doubt learning from the _wonderful _professor Aerial." At this, Athena rolled her eyes. The old nag was anything but wonderful. "Arabella had been called in by the new Transfiguration teacher, -"

"Wait, don't tell me, Dumbledore, right?" Athena interrupted. Aramos was always so easy to read.

"Well, uh, yea. So like I was saying, Dumbledore called Arabella in because he had heard of an outbreak of Unicorn deaths in the Forbidden Forest. Needless to say, we dealt with the problem, and Dumbledore and your mom became close friends."

"Wow! So I guess not all humans are as bad as Professor Amara made them out to be." Athena said, referring to another of the infamous professors at Spring Meadow. Professor Amara was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and almost all of her lessons ended the same way. "_Always remember that a Unicorn's greatest enemy is a cunning wizard_."

"That's true. Dumbledore is a kind and ultimately fair man. However, as Voldemort and his Death Eaters have proven, humans are just like Unicorns. They have their benevolent, and they have their sadistic. But I guess you'll be finding out for yourself."

They were silent for a while after that. Both too rapped up in their own thoughts for talking. They also had a long way to travel, so Athena settled herself on Aramos' back and tried to get some sleep.

Although his golden hoofs never made a sound on the thick forest underbrush, Aramos heard many other noises that night. Owl's hooting, deer foraging, and after many exhausting hours, the snoring of a girl as she subconsciously held onto the silvery mane of the Unicorn she rode.

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Athena awoke to a harsh thud as she slipped off of Aramos' back. "Hey! What gives, are you trying to be funny again Aramos! What did I tell you about that?" Athena screeched as she picked herself off the ground and rubbed her _very _ sore butt.

"You were literally becoming a pain in my back, and you wouldn't wake up, so I improvised." He said with trade mark smirk in place. Unicorns sure could be cheeky when they wanted to, or maybe it was just him, thought Athena.

"Well we can't have you breaking your light weight back over a hundred or so pounds. Poor thousand or so pound beast!" Athena said with as much sarcasm as she could muster, then added as an after thought, "Guess I'll do my anahumi thing."

She slid the silver ring off her finger and transformed back into her familiar snowy white body. She then cast the banishment spell on her cloak, wand and ring, and set off at a thunderous gallop down the trail they had been going. Aramos took a few seconds to close his muzzle then raced off after her.

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It was nearing noon two days later when the pair finally washed ashore on England. They had made fairly good time getting to the English Channel, when they had come to the realization that they would have to swim.

Normally, this would have presented no problem, for Unicorns were surprisingly adept swimmers. However, Aramos refused to get in. Ever since a prank Athena had pulled on him when they were foals, he was deathly afraid of swimming. It had taken forever to get him in, and another eternity to make him swim across. Constant threats of a painful death had helped.

Athena didn't know why she was now so excited to reach Hogwarts. Maybe it was the thought of doing something new. After all, the average life span of a Unicorn is over a thousand years. In that time, life can sometimes become a little mundane.

As she helped the waterlogged Aramos out of the rocky beach, Athena realized that it was probably the chance to finally prove herself that made her so eager. All her life, she had been prepped for the throne. Never had she gotten a chance to actually go out and experience the world. Nor had she ever been placed, except by her own stubbornness, in a position where she had to rely on herself.

After leaving the beach, the two set off at a blistering gallop

north.

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Aramos was baffled by his friend's new determination. He had thought that the trip would take much longer, because _he_ would be the one dragging _her_.

Not that he would have minded. Ever since the incident near Autumn Acres a couple of centuries ago, he had found himself looking at her in a new light. She was by far the most beautiful Unicorn he had ever laid eyes on, but something always kept him from opening up his secret to her. He supposed it was just nerves, but sometimes it felt like he already knew what the answer was going to be. Like she was always waiting for someone else, and how dare he get in the way.

Of course, this was all just speculation, but he wasn't going to press it.

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Another day of hard running fueled by determination and frustration at what might be happening to her mother at this very instant, and they were there. The towers of Hogwarts just visible over the canopy of trees in the Forbidden Forest. It was close to midnight, and both Unicorns were eager to be away from the creepy forest, so unlike their own.

Athena turned to Aramos with her intense eyes close to tears and said, "Guess I'll see you later." She then used the summoning charm to bring back her items and touched the silver ring with her hoof. In an instant she was again trapped inside the strange human disguise and slipping on the indigo cloak, careful to pocket her new wand.

Aramos stepped closer to the girl and put his head over her shoulder, giving her a hug. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," he whispered playfully, his tears concealed behind her golden hair. "In a year?" He finally choked out.

"In a year. I'll have my answers and we'll take care of Voldmort together." She then gave a weak smile and said, "He won't know what hit him." More seriously, she added, "Take care of yourself Aramos." She then pulled away and started toward the castle, careful not to look back.

"I love you too." Aramos whispered to her already fading figure as he turned to go find Niome and get out of this depressing forest.

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	2. Chapter 2

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn. On to chappie two!

**Chapter Two. Hogwarts**

It had taken two hours in the dark void of the Forbidden Forest to find the Thestral King. Niome had not been pleased at being woken up in the middle of the night, so the conversation had been quick and to the point.

Aramos was sure that the sight they had made looked quite ridiculous. A dark, demonic like Thestral conversing with a snowy white, angelic like Unicorn would have certainly turned a few heads.

After getting the point across that it was Arabella who wished him to look after her daughter, Niome consented and Aramos quickly left. He was eager to leave the 'Forbidding Forest' as he liked to call it, but the thought of leaving Athena was troubling him.

He kept trying to tell himself that it wasn't just that he cared for her, it was also the fact that no Unicorn had ever done what she was attempting to do. Although she had been taught all about humans at Spring Meadow, Aramos was certain that she didn't really know how to be one.

Starting back the way they had come, Aramos was left with one reassuring thought. He wasn't Athena Skydancer right now.

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'What I wouldn't give to be someone else right now!' Athena thought as she quickly walked toward the encroaching castle gates. The fate of all Unicorns, mankind, and the destruction of the world were all resting on her, and the weight of it was starting to crush her.

As the castle gates came into focus, so did a tall man. He appeared weathered, yet very friendly, and as Athena got closer she could sense the power that was radiating off him like waves.

"Ah, Miss Skydancer," he said with a flourish taking her hand, "It's so nice to finally meet you. I'm the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore."

Athena couldn't help but notice the twinkle in his blue eyes, and decided right then that nothing got by this man. She smiled politely and getting right to the point said, "Hello Albus, I take it my mother owled you what our circumstances are?"

"Yes, Arabella was kind enough to fill me in. Although seeing as you are to be a student here, it would be preferable if you were to address me as Professor Dumbledore. I dare say you would be arousing suspicions otherwise." He said giving a slight smile and gestured for her to follow him into the towering castle.

Athena couldn't help but be amazed at the vastness of the school. If it had been more pearly, she might have even considered it a rival to Summer Palace.

"School will be starting tomorrow, so you have the castle to yourself tonight. Before you get settled however, I would like to sort you into a house." Dumbledore said as they journeyed down a long torch lit corridor.

"A house? You mean I won't be staying in the castle?" Athena questioned in confusion. To her knowledge, the whole purpose of her stay was to be at Hogwarts near Dumbledore.

"No no, you see all students are divided into separate houses. They're sort of like dorms, or very large families, however you like to look at it." Dumbledore continued, obviously amused at explaining this, "The four separate houses are all quite different, but I won't describe them to you. Whichever house you're sorted into, having preconceived notions for it will never amount to any good." Dumbledore concluded looking Athena directly in the eye. She knew he was referring to her stereotype on humans and nodded solemnly. Dumbledore gave her an encouraging smile then turned around to face a stone gargoyle and said, "Pumpkin Pastries."

To Athena's amazement, the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped out of the way as a winding staircase spun down. She cautiously followed Dumbledore up the stairs and through a thick oak door, finding herself in the Headmaster's office.

As Athena took in the portraits of sleeping wizards, one of which was snoring rather loudly, Dumbledore handed her a hat. Or at least she thought it was a hat. The thing was dreadfully old and looked as though it was over due on a cleaning by about a century.

"Come come now, don't be shy. Put it on," urged Dumbledore as he saw her gawking at the alleged hat.

Athena swallowed her pride and placed the hat over her dark blond locks. Immediately, she heard a voice inside her head, just like she did when speaking with other Unicorns.

"Well, I must say you're the first Unicorn I've ever sorted," the hat said with a bit of surprise.

"If it makes you feel better, you're the first hat I've ever conversed with." Athena said nervously.

"You think on your feet, that's good. I also sense determination and a strong need to prove yourself, but where to put you? Slytherin likes purity, but I don't think they had a Unicorn in mind. Hufflepuff is loyal, as are you, but your determination would simply shine right through. You're clever enough for Ravenclaw, but Gryffindor is calling for you. Yes, I believe that's the ticket. Just remember this, a Gryffindor's courage does not lie in their strength, but in their hearts. When the time comes, trust in that."

Athena pulled off the battered hat and handed it to Dumbledore. "Well, what house shall I be showing you?" He asked expectantly.

"Gryffindor. Does that hat always give advice?" Athena asked as they headed back down the winding staircase and to the seventh floor.

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Athena liked her dorm room. It consisted of four luxurious four-poster beds and Dumbledore had even given her a trunk to put at the end of her's. Inside the school trunk, she had found numerous articles of clothing, some of which she didn't quite know the function of, and school supplies such as quills, parchment and her various study books. Athena was proud to see that she knew all about the subjects-potions, DADA, transfiguration, charms, care of magical creatures, and herbology-that she would be taking.

Dumbledore had explained after showing her the Gryffindor common room and girl's dormitory that she was to be the sister of his second cousin's wife. The story he had told her to convey, if asked about her origins, was that she had been going to the Salem Academy in the States, but when her parents had died, she had to move in with her older sister here in Scotland. That would of course mean, for a witch, going to Hogwarts.

It had all sounded very simple when Dumbledore had explained it, but now as Athena lay for the first time on a human bed, she was not so sure. How was she supposed to know how Americans behaved? How was she to know the names of her fake family? And most importantly, how was she supposed to fit in with teenage witches and wizards when she was in fact a four hundred fifty eight year old Unicorn Princess?

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Athena was abruptly awoken the next morning by a severe looking witch.

"I trust you slept well Miss Skydancer? I am Professor McGonagall, I believe I will be having you in my seventh year Advanced Transfiguration class." McGonagall said to Athena, her thin lips curving upward into a slight welcome.

"Um, yes. Is it a normal Hogwart's custom to be woken up at six in the morning?" Athena asked with worry. She was notorious for waking up late.

"No, simply my own. I forgot to mention that I'm also the Gryffindor head of house. I don't usually wake up the students, but Dumbledore instructed me to show you around the school before the students arrive here at seven this evening, and seeing as this is Hogwarts, we'll need all the time we can get to show you the essentials." McGonagall finished, handing Athena a robe to take into the bathroom. "Seeing as you're new to the ways of being a human, I thought I'd also give you a little lesson on personal things as well." She said with amusement as she watched Athena try to put her foot through the robe's sleeve. It was definitely going to be a long day.

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"So how do I get my leg out of this again?" Athena asked as she struggled with the staircase. Right as McGonagall had been warning her about some kind of trick step, Athena had found it.

"_Releasio_," McGonagall said with a flourish of wand movement at the offending step. It immediately released her leg and stood as innocent as before. Athena glared at it.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this place!" Athena fumed throwing up her arms up and rounding on the Professor. "I mean, all these hidden passages and moving stairways, and portraits, and," she again glared at the step, "Nasty inanimate objects. Why would anyone voluntarily stay here?"

McGonagall looked less than amused at the outburst, but said nothing. Athena realized she had made a mistake. Minerva McGonagall obviously _was_ the type of person who voluntarily stayed at Hogwarts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. It's just that I don't usually find myself stuck in a stairway or being assaulted by the armor decorations. It's all very strange to me. Hogwarts is an amazing place though. I really enjoyed seeing the Great Hall and the Quidich Pitch."

"It's quite alright. Speaking of the Great Hall, I believe it's time for you to change into your school uniform and head there. The beginning of term feast will be starting in an hour." With that, McGonagall gave a reassuring pat and left Athena to fend for herself.

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By the time Athena had journeyed up to the seventh floor, remembered the password of Marauder's Rule-she had no idea what Marauders were but had a strong suspicion that it might be a set of guidelines-and changed into her new school uniform, the way Professor McGonagall had showed her, the clock said ten till seven.

Racing down the stairs and making daring jumps to clear the moving ones, left Athena quite exhilarated. She had even remembered to avoid the horrible trick step. She had been so elated, that she had turned the wrong way on the first floor.

It had taken fifteen minutes to sort out where she was, and another ten to get to the Great Hall.

At the time Athena came crashing breathlessly through the large oak doors, everyone had been quietly listening to Dumbledore's usual start of term speech. Every eye seemed to focus on her as she made her way to the Gryffindor table McGonagall had shown her earlier.

Many whispers began erupting all over the hall, and Athena felt her human cheeks begin to flush a deep scarlet. Dumbledore smiled at her and addressed the entire hall with, "And this is Miss Athena Skydancer, the sister of my second cousin's wife. She will be finishing her education here at Hogwarts in the Gryffindor House and I wish you all to welcome her."

The Gryffindor table all began cheering loudly, as did the other houses, all except for Slytherin of course.

Athena decided to sit at the end of the table where there were fewer people. The only ones at the end seemed to be a group of boys, about her age she noticed. They were all immersed in a discussion, but when she sat near them, one of the two black haired boys looked up and motioned for her to join them.

Athena felt her stomach flip. This was going to be her first opportunity to try to fit in. She sure hoped these boys were the naive, friendly type.

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"Hi, my name is Athena" She said and then winced. "Although I guess you already figured that out with Dumbledore's announcement." The four of them did not seem to notice her blundering comment though. They were seizing her up.

To Athena, they, all except the mousy one, seemed to be pretty good looking blokes-for humans that is. The one that had invited her over was extremely blessed. He had relatively long, elegant black hair that seemed to fall exactly where it was supposed to. Along with his playful smirk and stormy gray eyes, he seemed to be quite the catch. Already, Athena saw a girl from the Ravenclaw table staring daggers at her for sitting so close to him.

The other black haired boy had much shorter and messier hair than his cohort. Although his chocolate eyes were not lacking a certain look of mischief.

The third boy had light brown hair streaked with thin silver highlights. His eyes could not have been more opposite from the other two. They were a sad, soft brown hidden behind a distinct amber glow.

Athena had seen this glow before. On many nights when the full moon was present. She and Aramos had often defended the herd's foals from hungry werewolves. She did not hate werewolves though, only the wolf that lived inside them.

She did a double take on the last boy. He didn't seem to fit in at all. As tall, dark and handsome as his companions were, he was not. His watery, dull brown eyes and mousy hair completed his look of an over grown rodent.

"Yea, we being the genius's that we are, figured out your secret identity." The messy haired one said with a fake pompous air, "But since we're all introducing, I'm James Potter, this," he said pointing to the elegant black haired one, "Is Sirius Black. The little one's Peter Petigrew," he said not even bothering to point, "And that is Remus Lupin." He finished by gesturing to the quiet lycanthrope.

Then Sirius playfully opened his arms wide in announcement and gesturing to all four of them exclaimed, "And we are the Marauders!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn. On to chappie three!

**Chapter Three. I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good**

"Where you from?" Remus Lupin asked conversationally as they all began digging in to the feast.

"Um..." She said pretending to consider which food she wanted first, while trying to remember what Dumbledore had told her to say. "I'm from the Salem Academy, in America." Athena finished at last, selecting several large red apples as she did so.

"Brilliant!" Sirius Black declared giving her a playful grin. "Do they still hunt witches over there?"

"Not that I know of." Athena said truthfully. She was starting to relax a little. All she had to do was pretend that she was talking with Aramos or Alimeda, another one of her friends from Spring Meadow.

"So why'd ya ove ere?" The one called James asked as he stuffed some rolls in his mouth.

"Well, I um,...lost my parents," She said, and in doing so reminded herself that the truth was not far off. "And I came here to live with my older sister and her husband." She finished in what she hoped was a grieving voice.

All four boys gave her looks of sympathy, and muttered apology.

"It's not your faults, and besides, I'm OK now." She lied, putting on a small smile. They all fell for it and started telling her about Hogwarts, quidich, other students, quidich, Hogsmeade, and some more quidich.

'Humans are so easy to fool' Athena thought to herself as she watched Sirius lean back dangerously in his seat, a content expression written on his handsome features.

"So Prongsie," Sirius said addressing James. Athena assumed the nickname was some kind of inside joke, that or they had spiked the pumpkin juice. "Is this the year?"

"This year or never, I reckon. I'm Headboy now. That's got to count for something in her eyes. I mean, she's the Headgirl." James said with a sudden sadness passing through his eyes.

"Who are they talking about?" Athena asked the quiet Remus. She was curious about this teenage werewolf. How could someone living with so much pain on the inside appear so calm and polite?

"Lily Evans. Headgirl, and obsession of James since he laid eyes on her the first day of school seven years ago." Remus said, clearly glad to have someone to talk to besides Peter. The little rat boy had been eating non stop since the feast had begun.

"Why won't she-" Athena began.

"Go out with James?" Remus said finishing for her. "Well for starters, she hates everything about him. Besides that, I think she's unable to see James as anything besides a trouble maker. First impressions are hard to change."

"Are they?" She asked, looking into his gold freckled eyes questioningly. He looked very puzzled at her for a moment, but seemed to decide she didn't mean anything by it and said, "That's what I've been told. Do you know what classes you're going to be taking?"

Before Athena could tell him the classes, however, Sirius interrupted saying, "Oh, let's not start talking about classes yet. Plenty of time for that when we actually have to go to them."

"Don't mind him Athena," Remus said in a mock condescending voice. "They never worry about their classes. It's a wonder they actually made it to seventh year." He then ducked as both James and Sirius threw drumsticks at him. Both sailed over the quick Lupin and hit James and Sirius directly in the foreheads.

Athena laughed, their antics reminded her so much of her and Aramos that for the first time, she thought that maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad after all.

Just as every one was scraping off the last particles of food left on their plates, the plates and food magically vanished and the entire Great Hall fell silent.

Athena was confused for a moment, but then saw that everyone's gaze was directed up at the Headmaster.

"Now that our bellies are full, let's proceed with the annual reminders so that we may adjourn to bed all the sooner." Dumbledore said in a welcoming voice. "For those new to the school, and those that continually seem to forget," he looked pointedly at the Marauders, "The Forbidden Forest is exactly as the name implies, forbidden. Our caretaker Mr. Filch has also kindly asked me to remind you that Zonko's new line of ever popping balloons are strictly not allowed. With out further ado, please follow your house prefects to your dorms and may this be the beginning to another unforgettable year at Hogwarts!"

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"Hey Athena!" Sirius called back over his shoulder as he was heading toward the boy's dorms, "Meet me and Remus here by the stairs tomorrow morning at seven. We can head to breakfast together and I can finish telling you about that Slytherin match we had last year!"

"The one where you 'accidentally' ran your broom head first into their captain as he was about to catch the snitch and break the Gryffindor record of going undefeated five years in a row?" Athena said with a smile. Sirius was so enthusiastic about everything that she couldn't help but tease him just a little.

"That's the one!" He exclaimed and then proceeded to playfully blow a kiss at her and said adding a dramatic bow for effect, "Good night sweet Goddess Athena, twas' a pleasure to meet thee." He then gave a surprisingly girlish giggle and ran up to the boy's dorm, passing an exasperated Lupin who turned around and gave Athena a warm, "Good night," and followed his hyperactive room mate into the Marauder's domain.

Athena shook her head. Getting along with humans wasn't hard at all! She then turned to head to her own dorm when she spied two arguing figures by the crackling fire.

"I don't care how much you _think _you've changed, James! On the inside you'll always be the same egotistical, arrogant prat!" A red headed girl Athena assumed to be the infamous Lily Evans burst out at a red faced James.

James, taking a deep, calming breath said to Lily, "I'm sorry you feel that way, but I have changed. Even if you refuse to see it, and we will have to work together this year, so like me or not, you're going to have to deal with me." He then turned around and giving Athena a curt nod as he passed, quickly proceeded up to the Marauder's room. It took Lily a few seconds to close her mouth, but once she had, she immediately headed up to Athena's destination. Athena reluctantly followed. She sincerely hoped that Lily wasn't going to be her roommate. Otherwise, she was in for a night of fireworks, and not the pretty kind.

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"Hi! You must be the new girl, Athena Skydancer?" Athena nodded to the bubbly brunette. She was very beautiful, and her smile, unlike so many others, actually made it all the way to her eyes. "My name's Guenivere Pruitt." The girl said introducing herself and holding out her hand.

"Um, it's nice to meet you." Athena said, shaking the smiling Guenivere's hand, unsure if was possible to become friends with too many hyperactive people in one day.

Athena then left Guenivere to her unpacking and begrudingly turned to face her two remaining roommates. Lily Evans and a girl Athena didn't know yet seemed to be very focused on their unpacking. It took Lily ten minutes to put up a poster of the Beetles. Why a group of young men preferred to be labeled as bugs, Athena was unsure, but she did know that Lily and her unknown friend were pointedly ignoring her.

Because she would be staying the duration of the school year in this room, with these girls, Athena thought it wise to start off on the right foot. Though that can sometimes be rather tricky.

"Hi, my names Athena. I don't think we've been properly introduced yet." Athena said, holding out her hand as Guenivere had done and plastering a huge smile on her human facade.

Lily gave Athena a withering look and turned back to her posters, pretending that a forth girl were not even present in the room. Her friend mimicked and after rolling her eyes at Athena continued with making her bed.

Athena slowly put her hand down. Reminding herself that she didn't yet fully know the ways of humans and that perhaps they didn't mean to be as rude as they seemed. Since she was already unpacked, she decided to change and head to bed early. Getting up early on her own was not going to be easy. As she rummaged around for the sleeping garments McGonagall had shown her that morning, Guenivere approached her.

"Hey, I'm sorry for the cold-shoulder treatment you're getting from Lily and Rose. They'll cool down after a while. Lily was just upset that you were sitting with the Marauders. She can't stand them, and James in particular."

"So I've heard." Athena said, not without a hint of sarcasm.

"Lily's usually a very nice person. I hope you get to see that side of her. Rose is just a follower. If Lily forgives you, I'm sure Rose will. She'd follow Lil off a bridge. Anyway, are you meeting the boys for breakfast?"

"How did you know?"

"I overheard in the common room. I think it's smashing! Could I join you guys?" Like everything else about this girl, her question seemed completely sincere.

"Of course. But won't Lily get mad at you?"

"No way! Lily knows I love everyone, egotistical or not. And she knows that any chance I have to be near Remus is a must."

"Are you two dating?" Athena asked, wondering whether Guen knew of Lupin's ailment.

"I wish! He won't give me the time of day. Everytime I want to do something with him, he finds some excuse." Her happiness faded for a second, but then she smiled again and looking Athena in the eye said, "Maybe with you becoming friends with him, you could help me?"

"I don't see why not." Athena said as she began drawing the curtains on her four-poster. She was about to do the last curtain, but saw that Guen still looked unsure, so she added, "Besides, it sounds like fun."

Guenivere Pruitt gave Athena a huge smile before turning in herself.

Even while getting off to a bad start with Lily and Rose, Athena felt pretty good with herself as she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of Aramos and her racing through the emerald trees of the Dark Forest.

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"Rise and shine sleepy head!" A painfully cheerful voice screeched in Athena's ear.

"Go away Aramos, let me sleep another five minutes." Athena mumbled, hiding her face in the pillow.

"Oooh! who's Aramos? A secret boyfriend perhaps?" On this, Athena abruptly sat up, smashing her head with that of her assailant.

"Ouch! He is _so _not my boyfriend!" She exclaimed indignantly to a cheerful Guenivere.

"You're a might touchy over someone who isn't your boyfriend," Guen said giving Athena a knowing smirk. "But I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it. Now hurry up and get dressed. Sirius and Remus are already down there. Well, actually, Remus is down there, but I don't think Sirius is all there. His brain usually comes back to him around lunch time. And Re-Hey! What are you doing with that sweater?"

As Guen had been rambling, Athena had been desperately trying to get dressed. However, she couldn't remember how to put on a sweater so she tried to step into it. Needless to say, she still needed help on the dressing herself department.

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After several failed attempts and one torn sweater that had been _reparo_ed, the girls were dressed properly and meeting the boys in the common room.

"Hi Athena." Remus said glancing up from the copy of Hogwarts A History he was reading. He then whispered, almost imperceptibly, "Hello Guenivere," and began walking quickly toward the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Athena was bewildered, she couldn't see Sirius anywhere, and Remus certainly was acting strange.

Suddenly her eyes fell on the comfy sofa in front of the fire and she saw him. He was lying face down motionless. Athena quickly left Guenivere to staring at Lupin's retreating form and ran over to Sirius.

Just as she was pulling out her mahogany wand to _enerviate _him, he rolled over and smiled. She nearly had a heart attack, and smacked him upside the head.

"OUCH! What in the bloody blazes was that for!" Sirius shouted, holding his head.

"I thought you were dead. Next time, um... don't do that," Athena finished lamely.

"I should think not with that arm of yours. You hit like a guy!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, it's a different thing." He said giving her a smile that made a passing fourth year blush beet red. GRRRRRR. "Oh, we better hurry to breakfast, my stomach says it's time to eat and it's usually never wrong." Sirius said and then grabbed her hand and took off toward the passage, Athena snagging Guen as they flew by her.

By the time they made it to the Great Hall, _all _three of them were skipping along and laughing about how James and Lily had to help the teachers pass out student schedules together.

"I'll bet you a galleon that Lily punches James before breakfast is over." Guenivere said as she took a seat next to Athena at the Gryffindor table.

"He says he's got a new approach this year, so I'll be generous and say she won't sock him till after lunch." Sirius said and began stuffing his face with pancakes, applying copious amounts of syrup and sugar as he devoured.

Athena grabbed some of the Honey Oat cereal and began eating it. Sirius and Guen shared a look. "So, um ever heard of the expression 'got milk'?" Sirius asked with amusement causing Athena to stop her consumption of food.

"Oh, well you see... I just don't like milk. You know, come to think of it, I sort of eat like a horse." They gave her more strange looks. "Not that I eat a lot," she said defensively. "It's just that I like to eat apples, and carrots, and sugar," As Athena said sugar she reached over and stole one of Sirius's sweetened pancakes.

"Hey, I was going to eat tha-"

"And salads, and candy, and um... this Honey Oat stuff. It's no wonder horses are willing to trade slave labor for oats, this stuff is great!"

Sirius and Guenivere were sharing looks that said Athena could do with a trip to Madame Pomphrey's. Although Sirius did look impressed by Athena's sugar tooth.

"Um, I meant in theory. Don't look at me like that you two! I promise I won't change into some monster, right here anyway." Athena said with a laugh. Both Sirius and Guen lightened up after that and the threesome started trading facts about themselves.

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"Hi, welcome to Hogwarts. It's a shame you're not in Ravenclaw, I would have loved to give you _the_ tour." A seventh year Ravenclaw with looks to rival Sirius and brown hair to match said in what he assumed to be a seductive tone to Athena. He had transgressed the Great Hall to stand right next to where Athena was sitting with her two new friends. "By the way, I'm Gideon Pruitt. I take it you know my sister Guen here?" He said with a pearly smile pointing to an embarrassed looking Guenivere.

"Get lost Gideon! Go back to your own table!" Guen said, her cheeks flushing.

Athena just plastered on a smile of her own, much to Sirius's dismay, and said sweetly to Gideon, "No it's Ok, you can stay here and make a fool out of yourself for as long as you want."

Instead of getting angry like she thought he would, Gideon simply smiled even wider and said, "If that's the way you want to play it. But trust me, this isn't over." He then grabbed Athena's hand before she could object and brushed his lips to it sending unwanted shivers down her spine, and just as quickly as he had come, he left.

"Oh yea," Guen said sarcastically, "I forgot to mention that I have two twin brothers, Gideon and Fabian. Both are in Ravenclaw and are the only serious, sorry Siri, competition the Marauders have in the pranking and coolness departments. By the way, way to give Gideon the what for. He hasn't had a girl refuse him since...well, ... a loooong time. That was really cool seeing him crushed!"

"No prob. Hey Sirius, what's wrong? You haven't said anything in a while."

"Oh, me and Gid used to be friends, but we got into a bit of a fight after a fierce quidich match-"

"And a girl both of them were hitting on." Guenivere interrupted.

"If you have to put it like that, yes. But anyway, we just haven't been on very good terms lately." Sirius finished and added as an afterthought, "Besides, my stomach has my full attention right now. Emphasis on the full."

"Oh look, here comes the _happy_ couple with our schedules." Guenivere said as a fiery Lily and a haggard looking James came over carrying the school schedules.

Wordlessly, Lily passed out the three schedules. She made a point of ignoring all of them as she did so, and just as quickly as she had come, she stalked off. James watched her go and then sat down next to Sirius across from the girls.

"Someone just put me out of my misery!" James moaned hitting his head rather painfully against the table. Sirius pulled out his wand. "Sirius, you prat, I didn't mean that literally!" James squealed and then gave a small smile when he saw his friend smirk. "Sorry, it's just that she won't say anything to me and even worse, she refuses to look at me. I've been nothing but kind to her. Sometimes, I think girls should come with a manual. I just don't get them." James finished miserably.

"You know Prongs," Sirius said directing his attention at Guenivere and Athena, "We do sort of have two manuals sitting right across the table from us."

Athena saw what he was getting at and said, "Personally James, I don't see what you like in Lily, but if it's that important to you, I'll try my best to help." Guenivere concurred.

"Wow Athena! We've just met and already you're doing more for me than anyone else ever has!" James exclaimed, and then added hastily at Sirius's death glare, "Besides the Marauders and my _dearest_ chum Padfoot here that is."

Sirius softened and deciding that a change of subject was in order before James could begin to cry, asked Athena, "So what classes you got?" Before he had even finished with the question however, he thought to himself, 'What in the bloody world am I doing asking about classes! I need to quit hanging around Remus'.

That worked to snap James out of his funk and he exclaimed, "Since when does 'I'm so smart I don't have to worry about classes' Sirius Black interested in school? Are you turning into Moony?"


	4. Chapter 4

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn. On to chappie four!

**Chapter Four. Slug Me**

As it turned out, the first class of the day happened to be potions, with the Slytherins of course. Athena couldn't understand why everyone was so upset with the House of the Snake. At Spring Meadow, there had been no separate houses. Everyone was a Unicorn, simple and pure.

Sirius had exclaimed, "Every year it's the same BLOODY thing! They like to torment us with double potions first thing after breakfast and as if having Professor Slug wasn't bad enough, they have to force us into the same room with the likes of Snivilly and that witch of a bitch, my own sister, Narssisa." He finished with a dramatic gag in the direction of the Slytherin table.

"I didn't know you had family here." Athena said. She thought it strange that Sirius showed so much contempt for his own flesh and blood. Were they not part of each other? Did humans not know that if one hates their own family, they are hating themselves?

He nodded, apparently unable to perceive the conflict beneath her blue/green orbs. "And not just a sister." Sirius then pointed to a particularly handsome and familiar looking black haired boy at the Slytherin table. "That-is my brother Regulus. He's a sixth year. The little snot head."

The resemblance between the brothers was remarkable. The only significant difference Athena could tell was their eyes. While Sirius's were an intense stormy gray, Regulus's were lifeless and as black as his ebony hair. Athena then noticed the girl sitting in front of Regulus and saw she too was a Black. 'That must be Narsissa' Athena concluded. To her right, Athena spied a sallow young man with greasy black locks draping his face. He was casually talking with Narsissa and would occasionally grace Regulus with a word.

"Who's that?" Athena asked pointing to the boy out.

"That's Severus Snape. Better known in Gryffindor as Snivillus or my personal favorite, Snivilly. He's really into the dark arts. Probably has a picture of Voldemort tattooed to his-"

"Not in front of the ladies Sirius, please." James said covering Sirius's mouth. "Besides, you could start a riot just saying _his_ name."

Sirius shoved James' hand away and gave him a mock glare. He then shrugged and gave Guenivere and Athena a grin. "What can I say, I just don't follow the beaten path. Besides, it's stupid to be afraid to even say his name."

"It does seem awfully foolish. After all, it's just a name, and Voldemort is just a man." Athena added. Sirius nodded to her in agreement, but James and Guenivere still looked skeptical.

Just when James looked about to argue the point by screaming "Lord Voldemort" to the entire great hall, Remus came to the rescue. "Hi everyone," he said looking down at the foursome. "Classes start in ten minutes. If any of you plan on attending them this year then you probably ought to get going."

Sirius eagerly jumped out of his seat and ran over to where Athena was sitting. "I'll show you where the Potions classroom is 'Thena'." And without waiting for her reply, grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the great hall. The rest of the group were left shaking their heads at Padfoot's antics.

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"Your friends keep telling me how lazy you are when it comes to classes. Why the sudden interest?" She asked still in the death grip of the over zealous animagi as they headed down to the dungeons.

"Well, the seats we choose at the beginning of the year are the seats we stay in the rest of the year. If we get there first, I can direct who sits next to who." Sirius explained without losing his focus to reach the dungeons first.

'This is getting interesting' Athena thought, and then voiced the question, "So who _do_ you want sitting by who?"

Sirius finally spared a look at her, and seeing the amusement in her eyes flashed her a grin. "Well, I'm going to strategically get James and Lily sitting together. Remus and Guenivere would also make a good combination, and they've only ever had eyes for each other anyway. They just need a friendly push in the right direction."

"More of a shove if you ask me," Athena interjected.

"True. I mean it's so ridiculous between the two of them. I know both of them have had plenty of offers to go out with other people, but they've always refused. I think they really are in love."

"What about you?" Athena was unnaturally curious about this question. She admitted to herself that she did like hanging with Sirius, and if he had a girlfriend then that would become a very messy thing to do.

"Oh, well I um.. I don't really go out with girls so much." Athena gave him an odd look. "NO! Nothing like that! I just don't really want to. I mean, most of the girls here only like me because of my looks, not to be too egotistical mind you, and I don't want to go out with someone like that. I had some bad experiences my fifth year. Girls really used me, and now, any girl that I actually like thinks that I'm some kind of guy slut or something. I've found it easier to simply stay out of relationships and remain Hogwart's most eligible bachelor."

"I can tell you've thought a lot about this. It sounds like a good idea." She gave him a smile to show she was sincere and then noticed that they were in a very dark hallway. "Is the Potions classroom buried under the school or something?"

Sirius suddenly stopped his dragging and let go of Athena. "OOPS. Um, guess I was a little preoccupied. We passed it back there." He took her hand more gently this time and they headed back towards the faint light. Stormy Gray eyes shining through the darkness into Athena's blue/green.

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Only four Slytherins had reached the dungeon by the time Athena and Sirius came rushing through the heavy oak door. "Alright," Sirius said assessing the damage done. "I'm going to have you reserve that table there," he said, pointing out to Athena a table in the back, "And then I'm going to go out and stall the two couples while you just make sure that no one sits in those two tables."

Athena nodded and put the bag Dumbledore had supplied her with on the table Sirius had dictated for them, and then she headed over to the two tables at the front to keep the other students away. Sirius headed back out into the corridor.

It didn't take long for everyone to come in and that greasy haired Slytherin had almost cursed Athena when she told him that he couldn't sit there due to a nasty rash curse placed on the wood-that she had made up of course.

Two minutes after all but the 'Sirius Tables', as she now thought of them, had been filled, the foursome and Sirius entered. Lily had obviously protested at being detained in the hallway and was sporting a rather nasty putrid green robe. She was also glaring daggers at Padfoot, who seemed to be rather pleased with himself.

Lily huffed when she saw no friends to sit next to and with a heavy thud sat down at the right front table. James, finally seeing what the goal of the strange game Padfoot had been playing was, almost flew to the table, and before Lily even knew what had happened, James was sitting next to her unloading his cauldron and Newt level Potions book.

Sirius, quite proud of himself, quickly sat at the back beside Athena, leaving a dumbfounded Remus and Guenivere the front center table. Knowing that they had been set up, they quietly adjourned to it and began taking out their supplies, careful to avoid eye contact with the other.

"Welcome class, to what I'm sure will be another absolutely wonderful potions class!" A rotund, jolly man Athena assumed to be Professor Slughorn said to the class. He spared a special grin to Lily and Remus and then continued with, "Now this being your Newt year and all, we will get right into today's lesson of the _Hydrapurity _potion." Athena swallowed. This was not good.

Professor Slug continued, oblivious to Athena's discomfort, "Now, does anyone know what the _Hydrapurity_ potion does?" Lily Evans was the first to raise her hand, and Slughorn, who had almost anticipated calling on her, eagerly said, "Yes, Miss Evans?"

"It's just as the name implies, a water purification potion."

"The most effective and hardest to concoct to be exact, but very well done Miss Evans. I always knew you would be Headgirl." At this, Lily's face became as red as her hair. Though that could have also been due to the fact that James was coughing what sounded like 'suck up' right next to her. "Take ten points for Gryffindor. OK now, let's get started making the potion." Slughorn flicked his wand at the chalkboard where directions came up, "And whoever finishes first will gain their House thirty points. Please begin."

"You feeling Ok Athena?" Sirius asked as he began to sift through his bag for his Potions book. It seemed that Sirius was slightly more perceptive than their professor.

"Uh, yes. It's just that I don't like making this particular potion. I've made it before and-"

"Wait, don't tell me. You're one of those Unicorn rights fanatics, aren't you? Just because the main ingredient is crushed Unicorn horn is no reason to get squeamish." At his last comment, Athena gave a violent twitch. "If it makes you feel better, I'll put the crushed horn into your potion for you." Sirius liked making fun, but he also seemed to have an obscure conviction for gallantry.

"If it has to be done, than thank you." Athena said hoping that she didn't know the Unicorn who's horn was about to go into her potions assignment. Sirius nodded and retrieved the ingredients from the storage closet. He then rejoined Athena and dropped into the cauldron, the crushed horn powder first as the directions indicated.

"Now see Athena, that wasn't _so_ bad...Athena?" He turned around and saw a passed out Athena Skydancer on the floor. "Well maybe it was _that_ bad, for you." Sirius said as he scooped her up off the floor and back into her seat. Although he could have _enerviated_ her, he thought it more entertaining to let her limp head rest on his shoulder as he worked over the two steaming potion cauldrons.

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"I still can't believe you passed out in potions! I mean, no one's done that since forth year, and even then it was just because the Marauders put a sleeping drought in the air vent," Guenivere said to Athena as the two of them and Sirius headed down the hallway to lunch. Sirius had finally been forced to revive Athena when Professor Slug had decided to check on everyone's progress. She had waved off her fainting spell as an allergy to Unicorns, which would have explained why she wasn't crazy about the potion in the first place.

"Those were the days." Sirius sighed. "Back then James and I pranked every day, sometimes more than once. Now, it seems like I'm the only 'immature' one left."

Athena didn't know what to say. She couldn't understand his need to prank, but she did know that it wasn't the lack of mischief that was bothering Sirius. It was losing James. "So Sirius, when is the first Quiditich practice?" Changing the subject at times like these was always a good idea, and it seemed to work, because Sirius immediately brightened up and said, "In thirteen days, four hours and-" he quickly glanced at his watch, "twenty-three minutes."

"Not that he's looking forward to it or anything," Guen added, not without some playful sarcasm.

Just as they had almost made it to the Great Hall, James came jogging up to them.

"Hey guys, Dumbledore wanted me to give this to you," James said as he handed a note to Athena. "He said I wasn't allowed to read it either, not that that stopped me from trying." Athena looked annoyed just then. "No, I said _tried_. He put a charm or something so that all I see is a blank parchment, kinda like the Marauder's M-"

"So James! What did you think of the seating arrangement in Potions?" Sirius asked rather loudly.

"Seating arrangement? Huh? Oooooh." James suddenly got whatever hint Sirius was dropping him and exclaimed, "Yea, your seating arrangement is wicked Padfoot! Kudos mate!"

Guenivere and Athena just turned to each other and silently mouthed, 'Boys are SO weird."

"So 'Thena,' what does this mysterious note say?" Sirius inquired with his usual amount of subtlety.

Athena opened the note and read:

_Dear Ms. Skydancer, _

_We will be starting your weekly private lessons tonight in my office. The password is still Pumpkin Pastries, though I have thought of changing it to that delightful new candy Hondydukes came out with called 'Lemon Drops'. They're absolutely wonderful! At any rate, please come to my office after dinner._

"Oh, it's just a personal letter from my sister. Family stuff," Athena lied as she carefully folded the parchment and stuck it in her pocket.

The four of them headed to lunch and as James began digging into a turkey sandwich, Lily Evans came rushing at him.

"I don't know how you orchestrated that little show in Potions, but don't get used to it!" Lily screeched, her normally beautiful emerald green eyes consumed with rage. When James just continued eating, Lily drew back her fist and socked James in the eye. Satisfied that he couldn't ignore _that_, she stomped off to join Rose at the opposite end of the table. It might as well have been the opposite side of the universe though.

"Looks like you both lose that bet." Athena said to Guenivere and Sirius. She was beginning to think that James' cause was hopeless. Lily Evans just couldn't be reasoned with.


	5. Chapter 5

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

I relize it's been a while since I've posted, but hey, demand didn't seem all that great. If anyone out there is actually reading this, besides me (and Sary of corse :) I'd appreciate a review. With out further ado, Ooo I rythmed! yay!-On to the Fifth chapter.

**Chapter Five. Padfoot and Silver**

The rest of the days classes seemed to fly by for Athena. In DADA, Professor McGenis had them all partner up and assigned them dates to dual. As had been the case with every other class, Sirius and Athena always seemed to be together. They were scheduled to dual next Thursday and had to do the proper research for the dual beforehand.

Athena thought that out of all the classes she had that day, DADA was going to be the most interesting. Professor McGenis was a very handsome auburn hared wizard. With his bright blue eyes and fun classes, it was no wonder that he was the crush of most of Hogwart's female population. The Marauders and the Pruitt brothers claimed second and third place, respectively. Remus had done an analysis, and had confirmed that it was largely due to the 'older man' syndrome and that the Marauders and Pruitt brothers did not integrate well into the other houses, largely due to the fact that they often pranked the other houses.

Athena was also looking forward to the chance at dueling a wizard in their own fashion. She just hoped the encounter wouldn't prove too embarrassing for Sirius.

Dinner found Athena, Sirius, Guenivere, James, and Remus all sitting together devouring the last of the roasted chicken. All of them had forgotten how hungry doing boring classes all day could make you.

"So Prongsie, where's Peter? I haven't seen him since he left our dorm this morning. You don't think he got eaten?" Sirius asked as he stole one of the last pieces of carrot cake off of Athena's plate.

"Don't know Pads, why don't you check the map when we get back." James said, only to get smacked by Remus. "Hey! What was that for Moony. Oh, is it getting to be that time of the month again? OUCH!" James screeched when Remus decided to make an encore performance.

"No you great coat rack." Remus said with dignity, as was his customary way. "It's for opening your big mouth two times too many. By the way, Peter told me last night that he doesn't have but two classes with us this year, and they're both tomorrow."

"Yea, but that doesn't explain where he was at lunch, or where he is now. Maybe he-HEY! You can't do THAT!" Sirius exclaimed as Athena _wingardium levioso_ed her carrot cake back onto it's rightful plate.

"I believe I just proved that I could." Athena said and quickly sunk her fork into the cake and slowly ate it. She made sure to chew extra slow and to incorporate frequent, "Mmmm"s into her eating.

Sirius looked close to tears as he watched Athena eat the sugary goodness. When he was finally able to turn his eyes away from the spectacle, he said to Remus, "What were we talking about again? I was distracted." Athena stuck out her tongue. Sirius just smirked and licked his lips at her.

"You were scheming where Wormtail could have gone. But I don't know why you're so worried. You're the one that's always complaining about how clingy he is. Plus, you know we'll see him tonight."

"We better. Otherwise, there'll be no getting around the Whompping Wil-"

"BED! You were going to say bed. Honestly Padfoot. You REALLY should decharm that bed for Peter. Who knows how many bruises he's incurred on its behalf." Remus said, cutting off an amused Sirius.

Athena decided right then, that whatever they were hiding had to be pretty good, and whatever it was, she was going to find out. Right after her lesson with Dumbledore that is.

"So sorry guys, but I'm going to head. You go head and finish your dinner. I'll catch up with ya at breakfast." Athena started toward the entrance hall.

"Bye 'Thena'!" The group chorused. When she was safely out of the hall, they all scooted a little closer and Remus said, "Is it just me, or something strange with Athena?"

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Athena's lesson with Dumbledore went over very well. She was shown all the insight he had to offer on the mysterious Tom Riddle and she was shown his own findings on what he believed the horcruxes were. To Athena, the idea of fearing death and spending so much effort into becoming immortal, was ludicrous. But she supposed this was all due to the fact that she didn't have to worry about dying.

She was coming to really like Hogwarts. For short time that she had been there, it was proving to be at least entertaining. The Marauders were hilarious and Sirius was filling that gap Aramos had left. That gap of a best friend with the potential to be more. Her only misgivings rested with the Gryffindor head girl. Lily Evans was not an easy person to room with. Especially when she seemed to have it out for you. Athena only hoped that whatever James had up his sleeve worked, and worked soon. Because she didn't know how much more she could take of the coldness in her dorm.

It was the thought of returning to the unpleasant dorm room that made Athena remember that the Marauders were up to something that night, and she had promised herself to find out. So she quickly ran to the common room and seeing no one, cursed her forgetfulness. She had wanted to see one of their infamous pranks first hand. Turning to the window, she saw a beautiful full moon illuminating the Hogwart's grounds and a group of animals running toward a gnarled tree. Athena narrowed her gaze and made out the forms of a large dog and a stag, and what appeared to be a rodent of some sort clinging to the stag's antlers.

"Wormtail...," Suddenly it all made sense. Padfoot was Sirius, James was Prongsie, err, Prongs, and little Peter was a rat. How fitting! That only left Moony. But she already knew his secret. The irony of the situation hit Athena full force. Here she was, a Unicorn Humanagus and the Marauders were all Human Animagus. It was all so terribly funny that Athena couldn't help but laugh to herself as she headed back out the common room and down to the grounds to spy first hand on the remarkable boys.


	6. Chapter 5 Part 2

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

**Chapter Five. Part Two. Padfoot and Silver**

By the time Athena had stepped out onto the moonlit grounds of Hogwarts, she had lost site of the foursome. She knew they had been heading toward the nasty old tree called the Whomping Willow, but then they had disappeared. Checking to make sure she was alone, Athena touched the necklace and transformed into the silvery form of the Unicorn Princess.

It felt so good to be back in her own form, that Athena couldn't help but gallop around the grounds. She cantered past the game keeper, Hagrid's Hut and picked up speed as she entered the Forbidden Forest. She barely noticed the curious eyes of a centaur as she thundered past. When she heard hoof beats behind her and saw the handsome palomino racing to catch up, she slowed. When he was even with her, she took off again. This time, he had caught on and met her challenge. The two of them raced around the dark trees and low hanging branches.

Athena didn't know where she was headed, all she knew was that she was having a blast! The Palomino centaur seemed to be having as much fun as she was. He wasn't as fast as her, but when she saw him falling back, she would slow down and then they would thunder off again. Their little race lasted for about two hours.

Just as the centaur seemed to be on the edge of exhaustion, Athena stopped. She waited in the middle of a clearing for the panting centaur to catch his breath.

"Th-at. Was. F-un!" He finally managed to pant out. Athena smirked and touching him with her horn, she telepathically communicated, "Yea, it was. You weren't half bad for a centaur. By the way, my name's Athena."

His blue eyes lit up in amusement at her unusual attitude for a Unicorn. "You're the first Unicorn to talk to me. I always thought that Unicorns were forbidden from talking to centaurs? Oh, and my name's Firenze. A pleasure to meet you." He said this last line after dropping onto one knee in a bowing gesture.

Athena quickly imitated the bow, saying, "The pleasure is all mine. And Unicorns aren't forbidden. The one's in this forest must just be stuck-up." He laughed at this. "I hail from the Black Forest. Anyway, it was nice meeting you." He gave a sad look. "Um..Maybe I'll see you around some time?" She finished encouragingly.

His sad look immediately changed into a smile and he nodded. She took her horn off of his golden shoulder and cantered off. He gave a small chuckle and after glancing back quickly to make sure it hadn't all been a dream, Firenze galloped back to the rest of his herd. Now quite a distance away.

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Athena didn't want to admit it, but she was rather lost. It had been a while since she had left the blonde half-human, and she was beginning to worry that she would actually have to call for Niome. Suddenly, she heard a wolf cry off to her left. She almost jumped into a tree for how bad it had startled her.

When she finally felt her heart rate slow down, Athena cautiously headed toward where the howl had come from. Athena had never taken her mother seriously when she had said that 'curiosity killed the Unicorn' and she didn't plan on backing down now. Besides, seeing a wolfed out Remus could prove interesting. Or at least she hoped.

Peering around a large fallen tree, Athena saw him. He was standing in a clearing with his back to her. His large muscular wolfish body covered in a thick brown fur. The only way she recognized it to be Remus, was that when he turned around and looked her in the eye, she saw a hint of sad soft brown behind the wolf's amber glowing eyes.

Since he didn't seem to be threatening her, just yet, Athena took a chance and looked over his shoulder. Just as she suspected, there stood a brilliant stag, a big, black shaggy dog and a squeaking fat rat. All four of them, the werewolf included, were gaping at her. Slowly, the black dog walked up to her and sniffed her leg. So as not to spook him, Athena very carefully, and very slowly lowered her horn to touch his shoulder. He didn't flinch away, and when he heard her voice inside his head, "So, Sirius. What's new?" He hardly jumped in surprise. He thought back with their telepathic connection, "Same old, same old. But you being a Unicorn. I shoulda known." He then turned his shaggy head and barked over to the rest of the Marauders who cautiously came up behind him.

They all gave her strange looks. Sirius was panting. Athena thought he looked pretty cute with his tongue out and big gray puppy eyes glancing between her and the rest of the boys, err..animals.

James was looking apprehensive. His doe brown eyes searching hers for a sign that she understood the gravity of the situation. When she nodded at him, he seemed slightly comforted and his proud antlered head shot back up again in an expression of relief.

It was hard to see little Peter's watery eyes, but when she did finally catch them, they seemed to be showing fear and, maybe even awe. He quickly scurried up Prongs' leg and up all the way to the top of his antlered head. Upon reaching his destination, Wormtail squeaked a welcome and waved his tiny paw at her. Even though Athena wasn't particularly fond of Peter, she returned his hello with a nod and turning her silvery head slightly, happened upon the glowing eyes of Remus Lupin.

He seemed to be having an internal conflict, so Athena quickly drew back a few paces, which he seemed to appreciate. She noticed that his eyes appeared to have lost some of the wolf's amber glow and seemed more subdued. She supposed that although he had become used to the presence of his fellow Marauders, he wasn't yet used to keeping the wolf at bay when standing five feet away from a tender white Unicorn. Athena gladly respected this fact. He also seemed to respect her wish not to be eaten. Their mutual respect earned the laughing of the rest of the Marauders as Prongs set off through the woods at a lope. Moony quickly set after him with Athena and Padfoot bringing up the rear.

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Prongs led the five of them all through the forest. They chased off a pack of giant spiders and had several wrestling contests. All in all, it was rather fun. The only damper on the night was the few occasional looks of suspicion from the Marauders. Well the Marauders minus Sirius. He didn't seem to care at all. Padfoot's tongue was lulling in contentment the whole night, and when his puppy-dog eyes met her ocean-emerald ones, his tail would wag.

At the first glimpses of dawn, the group led Athena toward the village of Hogsmeade. Athena had heard of the village, but had never seen it. They journeyed to the outskirts of the quaint town and came upon the most haunted building in Britain. Or so the Shrieking Shack was assumed to be.

As the five of them carefully entered through a hidden back door, and Athena saw no signs of ghosts, she quickly came to the assumption that the only inhabitants of the shack were the three animagi, the lone werewolf, and herself.

They all stood there, in the middle of what appeared to be a den, looking intently at each other. When the bright early morning rays of dawn penetrated the dilapidating boards of the Shrieking Shack, and Remus made his painful and horrendous transformation from beast to schoolboy, the three animagi changed into their human forms. As soon as he was human again, Remus collapsed. Luckily, James and Sirius seemed used to his fainting spells and managed to catch him before his head hit the ground.

The two of them dragged his limp figure onto an ancient worn-out bed. They then slowly turned around and continued staring at the silvery Unicorn occupying the middle of the room.

Athena was rather embarrassed. She couldn't very well transform in front of them because she would be naked in her human form. And that certainly wouldn't be very Princess like of her. Not that she cared. Well, maybe she did, just a little.

She opted for option B. This required her to explain the situation to the Marauders. So she timidly approached them and when they didn't back down, she lowered her horn onto Sirius's shoulder as she had done when he was Padfoot.

"Could you and the rest of the guys turn around a quick second. I don't happen to change with my clothes on if you get my meaning." She said shyly in his mind.

Whatever he had been expecting, this was not it. His eyes widened and he actually, after he had closed his mouth of course, smirked up at her. "Hey Prongsie, Wormtail, let's give the lady a little privacy a second." Sirius said grabbing a bewildered James and Peter by the shoulders and dragging them off into another room.

Without the curious eyes of the Marauders on her, Athena summoned the necklace and her other belongings. She touched the necklace with her hoof as she usually did, and once again she found herself prisoner to the blond headed girl she was becoming to accept as a part of herself. With a sign of resignation, Athena shrugged into her school clothes and indigo cloak. Looking over at the unconscious Remus, Athena shouted, "It's safe. You can come back in now."

"It can't be too safe, I've heard Unicorns don't like boys. If you're even a Unicorn. Perhaps that was just a disguise as well." James said carelessly as him, Sirius and Peter entered the room again.

With a tone of complete confidence, Athena responded, "Perhaps you aren't a real boy. Maybe you're really Rudolph." Sirius sniggered at this, causing James to 'accidentally' stomp his foot.

"OWW PRONGS! You great git! What's the big problem anyway? I mean, sure Athena kept this from us, but look what we were keeping from her." Sirius said gesturing to the three of them. Athena nodded her agreement. James still looked skeptical, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, she said, "We obviously have much to discuss, but it seems Remus needs some care for now, and this can wait."

James nodded and him and Sirius went over to the bed to gather up the Lycanthrope. They all set off back toward Hogwarts through a trap floor passage in the Shrieking Shack and came out through a passageway hidden beneath the Whomping Willow. Peter had to transform back into his rat form to disable the tree.

Once they had delivered Remus to an angry looking Madam Pompfrey, "Honestly, he should have been here an hour ago!", the four of them journeyed up to the Gryffindor common room.

Athena found herself sitting on the couch in front of the fire with Sirius sitting to her right and James pacing in front of her. Wormtail had run off to the Great Hall saying he was starved. Finally, after some world-class pacing, James turned to Athena and said, "Tell us everything."


	7. Chapter 6

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW! IT CAN BE MY EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT:)

lloollliippoopp: I'm trying to continue with it on a regular basis. My updates may vary, but I'm trying to get a new chapter up at least twice a month now. Thanks for asking. I'd appreciate any feedback you could give.

DestinyStarPrincess: two words, THANK YOU! a lot:)

**Chapter Six. Intervention**

Athena looked very nervous at the intensity in James's last statement, "Tell us everything." Could she do that? The answer was almost definitely a no. After all, she had only met them a few days ago. Granted she knew one of their deepest darkest secrets and she didn't want them coming to their own conclusions about her, but were they really ready for this?

"I'm not so sure I can James." She finally said. He seemed taken back a bit by her forcefulness and looked to Sirius to intervene.

Sirius slowly turned to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Listen Athena, I'm not exactly sure James said it in the nicest way, but just as we have some explaining to do, so do you. So...Pllllllllllllllease!" Sirius finished jumping onto the floor in front of her and got into a typical begging stance. It seemed he really was a dog.

Athena couldn't help but smile. Even at a time like this, Sirius managed to make light of the situation. James even smirked a little at his friend's interrogation method.

Taking a deep sigh, Athena finally mumbled, "All right, I'll tell you two, and you can tell Remus when he's better, but don't tell Peter. Just tell him that I found a Unicorn hair and made a Polyjuice Potion with it so I could follow all of you. And," she said as they looked like they were about to start celebrating, "you have to tell me your story first. And, I insist that we all make an unbreakable vow of secrecy about what is to be revealed," she added as an afterthought.

At the mention of an unbreakable vow, Sirius and James looked less thrilled, but they agreed. James said, "We'll need to wait until Moony is here to do the vow. How about we head up to the hospital wing?"

Athena nodded and the three of them set off, each one too lost in their own thought for speech.

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Athena couldn't believe it was only the second day of school! Her first day had been incredible. What would the second day hold? A transfer Thestral student? A three-headed giant dog named 'Fluffy'? Athena snorted at the idea. Where the heck had that come from?

Sirius and James glanced her way at the outburst, but said nothing. It was a little disconcerting to be among a quiet Sirius and James.

When they re-entered the hospital wing, they found Lupin sitting up quietly on a blindingly white hospital bed staring out through the window opposite him looking contemplative. About what, Athena had a pretty good idea.

When he saw them enter, a look of panic formed on his face and he quickly asked, "No one was bitten, were they?"

"Nope, although we do have some stuff to talk about with Athena here." James said as the three of them sat down on the bed next to Remus's.

"It has something to do with a Unicorn, am I right?" Lupin said glancing at Athena with his amber/brown eyes sparkling.

"Yea," this time it was Sirius who spoke up. "But Athena is forcing us to do an unbreakable vow before we reveal anything to each other, so we needed you. Are you feeling up to traveling to the Room of Requirement?"

"What's the R-" Athena began.

"It's a room that turns into whatever you need it to be, and right now, we need a place where no one will disturb us." Sirius said, glancing at Athena, a hint of reassurance in his stormy eyes.

"What about Peter?"

All three pairs of eyes turned to Athena at Remus's question. "Yea 'Thena', why aren't you letting Wormtail in on our little meeting?" James accusingly asked.

"Because I don't trust him. That's all you need to know for now. Are you ready to go Remus?"

Curiosity seemed to get the better of the boys, and with a quick swig of Pepperup Potion, Remus got out of bed and the four of them ambled quietly out of the hospital wing. No need to incur the wrath of Madam Pompfrey twice in one day they all reasoned.

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The Room of Requirement was, at the moment, a comfy common room, complete with snacks of carrot cake, apples, chocolate, and many other sugary edibles. The room seemed to be catering to Sirius and Athena's sweet teeth and Remus's chocolate fixation. There were four comfy chairs facing each other and a magical window was emitting a bright wave of comforting light onto the foursome's shoulders.

"Alright, everyone pull out your wand," James directed. They each silently complied, holding their wands out in the center of the circle as if they were about to say something like "Go TEAM!".

"Athena Skydancer, do you swear to keep the Marauder's secret?" James said, his voice solemn and his expression dead serious.

"I swear it."

Upon her words, a pale green glow emanated from all their wands then disappeared as if on a breeze. Athena cleared her throat to regain the Marauder's attention and said in the same tone James had used, "Do you, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, swear to keep my, Athena Skydancer's secret."

The three boys looked at each other and then looked back to Athena and said in unison, "We solemnly swear."

Once again, the wands glowed that pale green and then returned to normal. No one said anything for a moment. Then Sirius clasped his hands together said, "Wow, that was intense, almost like we were all getting married or something. Are we going to get to the part of telling each other are secrets now, or what?"

That snapped everyone out of their thoughts. Athena immediately gave a pointed look to James who decided he'd better start it off.

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"We found out in our second year, that Remus here was a Werewolf. He was always going off to visit his sick mom and coming back all beat up."

"When Prongsie here pointed this out to Peter and me, I suggested that we investigate."

"Sirius's _intelligent _idea, was to follow me on one of my _visits_."

"It turned out that it wasn't so bright an idea, because after we nearly got killed by that stupid tree, we were almost bitten by Remus himself, who had just transformed. We all hightailed it back to our common room screaming for our lives, it's a wonder we didn't wake up the whole castle. Especially since Wormtail was screaming like a little girl."

"No Padfoot, that was you."

"Can it Jamie, or I'll bite you next full moon."

"As if you could!"

"Enough you two! We need to finish the story." Sirius and James quickly shut up and began making faces behind Remus's back. "So anyway, I confronted them the next day and I found out that they didn't care I was a Werewolf. Heck-they even thought it was neat! The only problem was, they wanted to be with me when I changed, and that was too dangerous, so we devised a safe way."

"Between James's transfiguration skills, my potion skills and Moony's research, we became unregistered animagi at the beginning of our fifth year. The first of us to transform was Prongs here."

"That was quite a shock, let me tell you! Antlers coming out the top of your head is bound to make anyone uneasy."

"Uneasy is a nice way to phrase that, as I recall, you passed out cold."

"Shut up Moony, I thought you were too sophisticated to make fun of people."

"I only give credit where credit is due."

"Ok, before I start sounding like Moony, let's finish the story."

"What are you talking about Pads? It's done. Unless she couldn't figure out that you became a bloody dog and Peter became a squeaky rat!"

"Alright Prongs, NOW ITS BLOODY DONE! Happy?"

"Very."

"So Athena, what do you have to say to that?" Sirius asked looking apprehensive. She noticed that now that they were done recounting their exploits, they all seemed a bit apprehensive, especially Remus.

"First off, W-O-W! Becoming unregistered animagi, on your own, at the age of fifteen is amazing! Secondly, even if we hadn't done the unbreakable vows, your secret would be safe would me. I know we've only met recently, but I really do trust you guys and I hope you feel the same for me. The reason I didn't invite Peter is because I don't trust him. I really am a Unicorn, and as such, I have the power to read a person's aura. His is negative which means there's something amiss with him."

Leaning back in her chair, Athena gave them a second to digest all of this before she looked back to Remus and said in a quieter tone, "Remus, it makes no difference to me that you're a Werewolf. I knew it the moment I met you two days ago. You've been one of the nicest humans I've met so far." Sirius huffed a little and pretended to look hurt.

"Sirius, you've been the most _interesting _human I've met so far." They all, minus Sirius of course, laughed at this.

"I'm sure she meant that in a positive way Padfoot." Remus said playfully before walking over to Athena and giving her a hug. He lingered a little and as he pulled away, whispered in her ear, "Thanks, you don't know what it means to me to hear someone say that."

Athena gave him a thoughtful nod and said, "Well, I suppose I should give you all a little background on myself, seeing as how we don't want to waste those lovely spells."

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"I was born four hundred fifty-eight years ago, the only filly of Queen Arabella Skydancer. My father was a Black Unicorn named Anikon.

Black Unicorns are very rare, and are known for their reckless behavior and their roguishness. So naturally, my mother fell hopelessly in love with Anikon despite my grandmother, Alanair's warnings against their relationship.

Just as Alanair had predicted, my father left my mother. I never even got a chance to meet him before he took off. My mother didn't like to talk about him much, but I always got the feeling that she never stopped loving him. Anyway...

I grew up in two different castles, Summer Palace and Winter Stronghold. I attended the Academy for Unicorns at Spring Meadows and often went on trips with my friends to Autumn Acres. Summer Palace will always be my favorite place though. It's a beautiful pearl white castle that overlooks much of the mystical Black Forest and has acres of lush, emerald fields of grass and flowers surrounding it. I suppose the only way to really describe it-is that it's simply magical.

My best friend is a young royal bodyguard named Aramos. You actually remind me of him Sirius. Although, he's quite a bit older than you and not as funny. He liked to think he _was_ funny though. He's...umm..I think he's going on his five hundred sixty-second birthday this year, but I'm not sure, it gets confusing.

How I came to be here is a rather long and in depth story, but I'll try.

Aramos and me had gone on a vacation to Autumn Acres. On our way back, we were ambushed by these dark wizards. We made a stand and were reinforced by the captain of the Royal guard, Adair. We then rushed back to Summer Palace and my mother told me that the dark wizard, Voldemort, was behind this. He wanted the Unicorns for his allies, and if he didn't get his way, he wanted us destroyed.

My mother revealed to me an ancient prophesy made by Alanair at my mother's birth. It profesized the end of the Unicorn Queens and possibly that of all Unicorns. My mom thought the time had come. She ordered Aramos to escort me to Hogwarts where I would be tutored and watched over by her old friend, Albus Dumbledore. She also gave me the mythical ring of the goddess Athena to become human whenever I wore it.

What has become of my mother, I don't know. She vowed to... hold off Voldemort while Adair led the rest of the Unicorns to safety at Winter Stronghold. I can only hope that it never came to that. Aramos and I left that night and here I am." She finished, unshed tears lingering in her eyes at the thought of her mother and the fate of her Unicorns. She looked up to meet the eyes of the Marauders, but they all looked rather shell-shocked.

"Guys, please say something!" She begged. A single silver tear found its way onto her plush armchair as all three boys stood up.


	8. Chapter 7

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW! IT CAN BE MY EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT:)

**Chapter 7. Do As the Wizards and Witches Do**

_"Guys, please say something!" She begged. A single silver tear found its way onto her plush armchair as all three boys stood up. _

They all immediately rushed her and Athena found herself unable to breathe at the bottom of a three-way Marauder sandwich. The immense show of caring only made Athena's tears increase. After many moments, the boys all disentangled themselves from her. Although, Sirius took longer than the others and gave her a playful snuggle as he stood up. She returned his gesture with an equally playful but painful kick to his shin. Sirius just laughed.

Once they had all regained their composure, James broke the silence and said, "Guys, I think we should allow Athena the privilege to become the fifth Marauder and the only girl in our _exclusive_ club." Sirius immediately concurred, as did Remus.

"Joy. So how do I get initiated?" Athena said in mock sarcasm.

"By receiving a sacred nickname of course!" Sirius exclaimed.

"The guidelines are, it has to be related to your animal and it has to be somewhat vague. We can't go around calling you 'Unicorn Girl' afterall." Remus stated. He seemed to be feeling much better and was reclining in his puffy red armchair.

"How bout 'Horsy'?" James asked Athena. What shocked her, was that he seemed to not be joking.

"You can't be serious!"

"Of course not, that's my name!" Sirius had to duck as armchair pillows were flown at him. "Ha! All three of you missed!" WAP! Athena's second pillow hit Sirius directly in the face.

"You were saying?" She asked innocently.

"Maybe your name should be something like 'Naggie'." Sirius said sticking his tongue out at her. Athena didn't give into his childish behavior, and implored to Remus and James, "Any other suggestions?"

"How bout 'Silver'?" Remus asked. "I mean, that's the first thing I thought when I saw you in the forest. In fact, I was a little afraid of you at first, because I thought you were actually made of silver."

Athena thought about it. It did kind of have a simplistic charm to it, and it did describe her. The real her. "Sure, Silver it is!"

They all cheered madly and congratulated her. Sirius kept shouting, "Hi Ho Silver!" or something, but it didn't matter. She was now a Marauder.

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They had all decided that a celebration was in order, so James and Sirius led the way to the kitchens. Athena was amazed at the giggling fruit and at the number of House Elves. She had never seen any before this.

After eating their fill of sweets and butterbeer, Remus broached the subject they had all been avoiding, what to do about Peter?

"Well, we have to at least talk to him and find out what's going on." James said as he propped his legs on the table and put his hands behind his head. "I mean, we've been friends with him for years now, and he's never betrayed us. He's been annoying, clingy, ignorant, and clumsy; but never malicious. How do we even know that there's something wrong?"

"You said it yourself Athena, all we've got to go on is your word and your Unicorn instincts. Not to say there isn't some rationality in your claim. I've sensed something off about him lately as well. But then again, when is Wormtail ever really 'with it'?" Remus interjected, his logical tone resounding through the dim of the busy House Elves.

Sirius could only nod his head at James and Remus, due to the six pumpkin pastries he was attempting to stuff in his mouth.

"I know guys, and both of you could be entirely right. The only thing I know for sure, is that there's something he's keeping from us." Athena said as she watched Sirius struggle to swallow and not choke on his pastries.

Sirius finally finished and said, "I hate to be the one to suggest it, but how bout we spy on Wormtail?"

"You know Sirius, that's not actually a bad idea!" Remus said standing up. Sirius stuck his tongue out at him. It still had food on it. "Ewww SIRIUS! How many times have I told you not to show me your chewed food, that is so gross!"

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Since it was the weekend, they all decided to start their espionage that day. They agreed that it would be best to take shifts and follow at a distance with James' invisibility cloak concealing them.

James volunteered to do the first shift and had headed off toward the Gryffindor Common room to pursue Peter, leaving Sirius, Remus, and Athena to do whatever they wanted. The next shift would be Remus in two hours.

After much protest, mainly from Sirius, the group headed to the library.

Remus had suggested that since Athena had to eventually confront Voldemort, she had better research him more thoroughly. She had told both of them everything she had seen in Dumbledore's lesson and they now knew of the Horcruxes.

"So, we know that he split his soul into seven pieces," Remus began, writing on a sheet of paper as he spoke.

"Dumbledore assumes that two are the heirlooms of Slytherin that I saw in the pensive. A locket and a ring." Athena said as she began thumbing through a 1940's yearbook.

"One of the Horcruxes has to be Voldemort himself." Sirius added as he looked over Remus's shoulder at the list he was making.

"Another Horcrux has to be the Hufflepuff cup he took when he murdered that woman." Athena said, referring to the memory she had viewed in the pensive.

"Alright, that leaves us with three Horcruxes. You said Dumbledore thought that one of them might be something of Ravenclaw or Gryffindor's?" Remus said, writing furiously on his parchment.

"Yea, though that doesn't help us much. He also said that it doesn't have to be inside an inanimate object. It could reside in an animal, or even another person for all we know." She stopped flipping through the pages and exclaimed, "Oh, I found him!"

She walked over to the desk Remus was using and laid the yearbook before them, pointing to a moving picture of a young man with neat black hair and pale emerald eyes.

"That's Tom Riddle? Is that what Voldemort looked like?" Sirius exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yep, he was a rather handsome bloke." Athena said, earning a playful swat from Sirius.

Remus began reading the caption below Riddle's picture. "Tom Riddle, Head Boy 1944-45 school year, Slytherin, top of his class, and tied Albus Dumbledore, for the most NEWTs ever earned by a Hogwart's student."

"Wow, someone was a little golden-boy! Are there anymore pictures of him?" Sirius asked, already scanning the rest of the yearbook.

"Not that I saw, but we really need to start researching the Horcruxes that we know of. Voldemort can't be defeated until we get rid of the other six parts of his soul." Athena said glancing back over at Remus's parchment. "I'll start with the locket and ring since they go together. Remus, you take Hufflepuff's cup. And Sirius...umm..How bout you research Gryffindor's artifacts?"

The boys nodded and they each headed to the Hogwart's Founder's section of the Library, where Athena grabbed several books on Salazar Slytherin, Remus a large tomb on Helga Hufflepuff, and Sirius a stack of Godric Gryffindor books. The three spent the next two and a half hours reading and jotting down notes quietly in the back section of the library.

Madam Pince nearly fainted when she went to check on them and found Sirius actually researching. Remus and Athena just shot each other smirks at the innocent shrug Sirius gave the confused librarian.

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It wasn't until an agitated and panicky James dragged them out of the library that they remembered Remus was supposed to have switched with James thirty minutes ago.

"I'm so sorry Prongs, it's just that researching the Founder's was really fascinating." Remus apologized as they all struggled to keep up with the long-strided Quidditich Captain.

James said nothing, he just continued to walk in what appeared to be the direction of the Room of Requirement. Sirius, picking up that something was wrong, said, "Prongsie dearest, did you discover anything?"

"Shut up Sirius, this is important. I don't want to say anything until I know we won't be overheard." James hissed this in a low and deadly voice. He seemed truly livid at the moment. Sirius knew not to push James when he was like this and oddly followed James's order.

Once the four of them were all situated in the Room of Requirement, and the door had been locked with a _Colloportus _spell, James turned to Athena and said, "You were right."

For a moment, no one said anything. Then James continued, "I found him by using the Map. -We never told you Athena, but we've made a map of Hogwarts and the grounds that shows where everyone is at all times...Anyway, so I followed his to the dungeons. He was continuously looking around, seeing if anyone was watching him. Stupid git probably never even thought of the cloak. He knew the password to the Slytherin Common Room, and I entered right behind him. By the way Paddy, the password is Black and Potter are Gits."

Sirius and James exchanged small smirks at this and Sirius jotted down the password for future pranking. "Once we were inside, he was met with Snivelly, Regulus, and Narcissa. He told them he had something very important to reveal to the Dark Lord, and then they told him to use the usual method and he went to the fire and flooed somewhere. I think he said something like "Riddle Manor" but I couldn't quite hear. I stayed and overheard the three of them talking about how disgraceful it was to have someone like Peter in their ranks, but then Snape pointed out that even rats have a purpose. By sheer will-power, I managed to make myself get out of there without waiting for Wormtail to return so I could kill him. He's a Death Eater. And it's been right under our noses."

James finished and no one said a word. Looking at the three boys, Athena was filled with mixed emotions. On one hand, she had revealed a traitor to them, on the other however, she had made their young, carefree lives crash all around them.

James began to softly cry and put his head in his hands.

A single crystal tear escaped Sirius's gray eyes and ran down his handsome face.

Remus sighed and looked drained as he rested his head back against the chair.

"What are we going to do?" Athena asked in a quiet voice to the grieving boys.

"We're going to do as we've always done." James said as he wiped away his tears.


	9. Chapter 8

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW!

**Chapter 8. Guenivere and the Knights**

The next day, when the four of them met at breakfast, James informed Athena that they had taken care of Wormtail. At first, she had been terrified that he'd meant they'd hurt Peter, but James gave a hollow laugh at this, and explained that they had given him a lie. Remus had told Wormtail that she had simply been using a polyjuice potion. They assumed that he believed them, because after hearing this, Peter immediately apologized and ran off with some lame excuse of having to go to see Professor Meginis about their upcoming duel. Peter had seemed frightened.

This was a great relief to Athena. She had been worried that Voldemort would now know her whereabouts and her whole mission might have been blown, but if Peter had reported back to Voldemort with the lie, it would only be Wormtail who suffered.

As usual, when Guenivere had come to join them, Remus ran off to the library.

After a while of the four of them talking, James suddenly slapped his head and sprinted off out of the Great Hall.

A bewildered Athena and Guenivere turned to Sirius for an explanation, but all he said was, "James is an airhead. He probably just forgot something. I've been telling him for years to just dye his hair blonde and be done with it. No offense Athena."

"What's wrong with being a blonde?" Athena asked as she noticed Gideon and a boy who looked to be his twin, Fabian, enter the Great Hall and head towards their group.

"Nothing, it's just that sometimes, blondes have been known to act a little ditzy."

"Sirius, you really aren't one to judge ditzyness." Gideon said coming up from behind Sirius and making him jump. He then ignored Sirius's death glare and turning to Athena said, "Hi again, wanted to introduce you to Fabian here." At the mention of his name, Fabian gave a little bow. Guenivere just moaned and put her head down on the table.

Athena, noticing the obvious discomfort of Guenivere and Sirius, said in a neutral voice to the twins, "Ok, we've been introduced. I'll see you guys later." The two shrugged off her coldness and after blowing her goodbye kisses, left the trio in peace.

"This is going to be a long day." Guenivere finally said. Athena and Sirius could only agree.

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It turned out to be a long first week as Athena found. The only exciting thing to happen was the Thursday duel in Professor Meginis's class. That and all the Slytherin's came into the Great Hall Friday morning with neon green highlights. Sirius and James had made good use of the Slytherin's password the night before. Needless to say, McGonagall had not been too thrilled with Hogwart's newest hair stylists and gave each of them detention on Monday evening and twenty points off of her own house. The boys didn't seem to mind though. They gave a deep bow to her as they received their punishments and then turned around and gave the entire student body a bow and a cheeky grin. Many of the Gryffindor students applauded.

The duel had been interesting to say the least. Because Gryffindor and Ravenclaw's were paired up together in NEWT DADA, the twins had been in the class as well. They and the Marauders were always clashing. The duel just gave them a way to do it publicly.

You could have almost seen the sparks fly off the two wizards as James and Fabian went at it. Athena could tell they were both highly skilled duelists. The way they were constantly moving, dodging and firing spells was testament to that. The exciting twenty minute duel ended in a still mate with both James and Fabian _bombarda_-ed by the other.

The next big duel had been Remus and Gideon. With the Marauder honor at stake, Remus didn't disappoint. Although Gideon was admittedly good at spell work, Remus was a far better duelist, and sure enough, ten minutes into their match, Lupin was holding Gideon's wand after executing a silent _Expelliarmus_ spell.

After that duel came Guenivere and Lily. Both had amazing spell work, and used charms that Athena had never even heard of before. Their battle seemed to last forever, and when Lily finally managed to knock Guen over and snatch her wand, she showed really good-sportsmanship and helped Guenivere up. Both girls were given a standing ovation by the class and an impressed Professor Meginis.

Athena had been nervous when she stepped up onto the dueling platform with Sirius. She didn't want to blow her cover, but she also didn't want to lose!

Sirius had seemed to notice her anxiety and had given her one of his so called "irresistible" smiles. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to be irresistible for, but it did make her relax and smile back. Athena Skydancer thrived on challenge, and this was going to be no exception!

They bowed to each other in respect and then fired off their first hexes. Athena had decided to start with basic spells and work her way up as it became necessary. As it turned out, Sirius was an excellent challenge. Although he couldn't get _protego_s up fast enough to block her spells, he was quick enough to dodge, and dodge he did. They went on like a cat and mouse for nearly half an hour before Sirius finally got blasted back in an overly zealous _immobulus_ spell. It hit him so hard that he fell off the platform and crashed into the wall.

Athena rushed over to him, impressing several of the students at her effortless jump off the rather tall platform.

"OH MY GOSH SIRIUS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Athena screamed as she held his face in her hands. By this time, most of the students were crowded around the two of them and Professor Meginis was trying to get to them through the mob. Sirius had blearily cracked his eyes open and whispered so only she could hear, "I'll be alright as long as you hold me princess." Athena immediately let him go, but she couldn't hold back a little grin.

When Meginis had finally reached Sirius, who was already struggling to stand and laughing at the blushing Unicorn, Athena had told him, "He's fine Professor. Well, as fine as he'll ever be."

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Their duel had been the talk of the school during the boring weekend. When people weren't making fun of Sirius for losing to a girl, or so they thought, they were asking Athena where she learned to duel like that. Athena would always say, "We had a dueling class at the Salem Academy."

On Sunday, when Athena had gone with Guenivere and a reluctant Remus (she had begged and given filly eyes) to watch the first Gryffindor team practice, tragedy struck. The Gryffindor seeker, Tad Coffin, had attempted to catch the snitch as it did a nose dive. The dive became too steep for Tad to pull out of, and his Cleensweep Seven just couldn't break his fall. He ended up breaking his elbow, which wouldn't have been too bad because Madam Pomphrey can heal bones in a heartbeat, but the fall seemed to have scared Tad so bad, that he told James then and there that he quit. James and the rest of the team begged Tad to reconsider, but he was firm.

During the argument between James and Tad, Sirius had wandered over to where Athena, Guenivere and Remus were sitting.

"Hey guys! How you likin' Quidditch so far 'Thena?" Sirius said, making a face at the injured Seeker.

"It seems like it might be fun."

"Might be? That's it! You. Me. Flying. Right now." Sirius said jumping on his broom and flying over to where Athena sat. She didn't refuse, instead, she hopped on behind him and the two took off. The two smiled as they soared toward the opposite goal posts at the deer-caught-in-headlight looks that adorned Remus and Guenivere's faces as they realized they were now alone in the quiet darkening Quidditch Pitch Stands.

"Think they'll get in trouble for being in the stands all by themselves?" Athena asked as Sirius did an abrupt dive.

He easily pulled out of it and yelled back at her through the wind, "I hope so! Say, Athena-"

"Yea," She said as she snuggled her face into his back to escape the wind.

"You wanna try flying on your own. You don't seem exactly scared up here."

She popped her head up and exclaimed, "Sure! I'd love to!"

So Sirius touched down and ran to the broom shed. He came back with a rickety school broom slung over his shoulder. He handed it to Athena and starting explaining how to handle it.

"Don't worry about it, _Padfoot, _I saw how you were flying it. I'll be fine." Athena said as she hopped onto the broom and took off, leaving an open mouthed Sirius Black gaping behind.

"That's my kind of Unicorn!" He finally exclaimed when he remembered how to talk.

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Athena was surprised by how natural flying a piece of wood seemed to her. By her second lap, she got bored, so she added some loops and eventually dived as Sirius had done. She waited until she could see Sirius over by the bench about to cover his eyes before she pulled the broom up. It felt good to go so fast, although, she did miss her 'wind-blocker'.

As she passed over the Gryffindor section of the stands the third time, Athena looked down and much to her shock, found Guenivere with Remus's arm around her shoulder. The two were laughing and talking. _Go Guen_! Athena thought to herself.

When she touched down, Sirius seemed to know what she was smiling about and said, "I want them to tell their children how **I **was the one responsible for all this!"

"You had some help, remember."

Sirius took the broom from her grip and gave her a small peck on the cheek. Athena blushed at this, especially because it had made her stomach flip.

Sirius just gave a mischievous smirk and whispered, "How could I forget?"


	10. Chapter 9

**A Sirius Unicorn**

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot and a few OC's you haven't heard of. The world is J.K. Rowling's and a few of my idea's for the Unicorns came from the book, The Unicorn Chronicles, and the movie, The Last Unicorn.

Author's Note: If absolutely anyone out there is reading this, PLEASE REVIEW!

Big Thanks to DestinyStarPrincess. You ROCK Sary-Beth:)

**Chapter 9. The Snitch Princess**

When the four of them, Remus, Guenivere, Sirius, and Athena came laughing into the Gryffindor Common Room, they were immediately bombarded by and an over-excited Captain James.

"Hey guys! Well-and girls, though if you really want to get technical, it'd be guys, girl, and Uni-"

Athena quickly stomped on James's toe and said, "Unitards. Awful things really," loud enough to cover up James's rather crude protest at having his toe almost flattened.

Remus sighed at his friend's behavior and asked before Guenivere could question everyone's sanity, if there was a point to James accosting them-other than just being annoying that is.

"Oh yea! I almost forgot in all the violence," James gave Athena a glare at this point which she returned with a smirk worthy of Aramos. He then shook his head at her audacity and continued, "Since Coffin pretty much quit on me, and you flew around so nicely, and since you're like already a Marauder, and since Sirius is crazy about you, and because well...I can't think of anything else-Oh Wait! Also because I'm Captain-"

"Is there a point to this _Jamie_?" Sirius growled. He did not like being put on the spot in front of Athena. So what if he liked her? She's a cool person to hang out with, he reasoned. James didn't need to go parading the fact.

"Yes there's a point! If you people would ever let me get to it." He paused here and was surprised when everyone stayed quiet. "Ok, right then. I'm asking you, Athena, to be the new Gryffindor Team Seeker."

Athena glanced at Guenivere, who was currently holding Remus's hand and trying hopelessly to look nonchalant about it, before she turned once again to James and asked, "This on top of all _my_ other responsibilities?"

Thankfully, James was a little brighter on the uptake this time and said, "Well, the way I figure it, you could use a hobby to take your mind off of your other activities. And besides, it's on Sunday afternoons. That shouldn't conflict with anything."

"Well, I don't know..."

"PLEASE! I'll do anything, I'm begging here!" James dropped down on his knees as he said this and put his hands together in a plea.

Athena backed up a little, and put her hand to her chin in thought for a minute. "Alright, but you have to be my servant for a day. That means that you have to do anything I tell you to do. No if's and's or but's."

"As long as it's nothing kinky. My heart belongs to Lily." James said as he stood up.

"What does kinky mean?" Athena asked in confusion.

"I'll let Sirius explain that to you when you two are alone together some time." James said as he ducked a punch from Sirius.

"Don't worry about it 'Thena. Prongsie is being an arse." Sirius said as he stuck his tongue out at James.

"I learn from the best," James said smirking at the fuming Padfoot. He turned back to the Unicorn Princess and said, "Sure, I'll be your servant for a day. What day do you want?"

"Next Sunday would be good."

"But I just told you we have Quidditch next Sunday!" James pouted.

"I know. You'll also have to look for a replacement Seeker next Sunday if you don't do it that day." She threatened, "I hear Gideon and Fabian's Team is _really_ good this year."

James held up his hands in defeat, "Alright, Alright. You win. Next Sunday it is."

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"I can't believe Remus actually held my hand all the way back to the Common room!" Guenivere gushed as she and Athena ate breakfast Monday morning by themselves. The boys were all sleeping in for some reason and the Gryffindor table was quite deserted save several third years and a lone sixth year girl.

"What's there not to believe? It's obvious that he likes you as much as you like him. I think it's silly that both of you keep beating around the bush." Athena said as she filled her bowl with Honey Nut Clusters and grabbed an apple.

"You mean like you and Sirius do?" Athena stopped grabbing food at this and gaped at her friend. Guenivere just gave a winning smirk and continued. "You two are so right for each other. And I've never seen Sirius so taken with anyone. Usually he goes through girls like he goes through candy."

"That bad?"

"Yea, but with you, he actually seems to have some deeper feelings. It's really surprising actually. He's always been such a playboy."

Athena knew everything Guen was saying was probably true, but it was so strange to her. Guenivere didn't know about Athena's true nature. How could she explain to her that there was no way Sirius and her could ever be more than just friends? "Maybe he does feel differently about me," Athena said carefully. "Maybe he sees me as a friend, whereas all these other girls, he simply saw as girl-friends?"

Guenivere looked like she was about to argue the point, but just then, a very nervous looking Remus came up to join them. Guen immediately forgot whatever she was going to say and gave a huge smile to the lycan.

"Hello Athena,...Guenivere." When Remus spoke her name, he said it so carefully, he seemed scared that he might break it. He continued in a soft mumble, "I wanted to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I was a bit too forward and-"

"Remus Lupin! If you were any more _forward,_ you'd be living like a muggle! I really like you!" At this last statement, Guen seemed to freeze. She quickly put her hand to her mouth as if she had said a bad word. Then she shook her head, straitened up and looking Remus directly in the eye said, "Yea, that's right. I REALLY LIKE YOU. I have for a long time and yesterday was one of the most amazing days of my life. Just spending time with you is wonderful. I've always hoped that you might feel the same about me, because I don't think I could take that kind of rejec-"

Remus suddenly leaned forward and gave Guenivere a soft, sweet kiss. As he was about to pull back, when Guenivere pulled him down to the seat beside her and deepened the kiss. Athena was too shocked to say anything for a moment, then when she remembered she was a human, and that humans had vocal cords, she stammered, "I'll just be going. First class is Potions. Don't want to miss that!" They continued kissing, oblivious to the world around them. Athena sighed and said, "Oh don't worry, I'll be fine. You two take your time."

With that, she quickly retreated from the Great Hall and blissfully scampered to the dungeons.

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"They WHAT?" Sirius exclaimed when Athena told him about what Guenivere and Remus were doing at that exact moment. "I didn't know old' Moony had it in him!"

"Yea, it was pretty...umm...well, interesting." Athena said as she pulled out her NEWT level potions book and began gathering the ingredients they would need for the _Draught of the Living Death_ potion they would be doing in class today.

They worked silently for a few minutes before Sirius turned to Athena suddenly and asked, "How is it that Unicorns express emotions like love? I mean, you can't very well kiss when you're a Unicorn. Right?"

Athena laughed at this and said, "Not really. We sort of nuzzle each other." She stirred the potion five times counter clockwise and then said, "Oh, and one Unicorn putting their neck over another Unicorn's neck is a great show of affection, that and crossing horns. Though that's more of a friend thing." She stopped for a second and thought of Aramos. They had crossed horns all the time, whenever one of them had done something cool. It had almost been like a high five to them.

"I think I'll keep to kissing. Although I'm not against nuzzling." Sirius said playfully, earning a slap on the arm from Athena.

Athena was about to retaliate verbally, when a second year entered the classroom and handed Slughorn a note. The Professor glanced at it and headed over to their table saying, "Miss Skydancer, I've got a message for you." He handed her the note and glanced at their potion. "By the way, very nice Draught. This is the first one I've seen today that actually is the right shade of red. Ten points to Gryffindor, oh and Miss Skydancer, I'd like to talk to you after class." Athena nodded and Slughorn turned and left them to themselves.

"He's probably going to ask you to come to his lame Slug Club meetings." Sirius whispered as he gathered the potion in a vile to be graded.

"I take it this is some club he's formed?" Athena asked as she began cleaning up their area.

"Yea. Lily, Remus, and Gideon are all in it. The Pruitt Punk is always lording it over me, but I have the inside scoop from Moony, and he says it's just about the most boring thing he's ever done. And let me tell you, Moony has done his fair share of boring stuff."

"So what do you recommend I-"

Just then, a very flustered Remus Lupin and Guenivere Pruitt entered the classroom. They quickly took their seats and began on their assignment. Athena noticed that this didn't stop them from sneaking glances at each other.

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The ten points that Athena and Sirius had gained for Gryffindor were taken away almost immediately by Lupin and Guen's late arrival. The loss didn't seem so bad though when you looked on the faces of the two. It had obviously been worth it.

Sirius had advised Athena to try to wiggle her way out of the club, so as she waited for everyone else to filter out of the dungeon she tried to think up convincing excuses. Besides Quiddich practice on Sunday's, nothing was coming to mind.

"Aw, Miss Skydancer!" Slughorn beamed as he waddled over to her desk once more in the now empty classroom. "I'm sure that by now you've heard of my little club for Hogwart's brightest stars, the 'Slug Club'?"

"Yes." Athena's mind was still racing for excuses. This wasn't going to end well.

"I would like to offer you membership into my exclusive club. What do you say?"

"Well, I'm terribly busy with all this school work and you probably haven't heard it yet, but I've recently been made the seeker on the Gryffindor House Team, and I really don't think I'd have time for-"

"Excellent! So it's settled! Our first gathering will be this coming Saturday night. Be at my office here promptly at 6:00. So good to have a fresh face in the club!" With that, the rotund Professor left the Unicorn Princess gaping and journeyed into his office.

Athena stood rooted to the spot for several moments with her mouth gaping before she finally realized that people would never fail to amaze her. With that thought, she threw her bag over her shoulder and left the Dungeons. She didn't notice the pair of eyes that followed her movements as she walked down the deserted hallway.

As Athena rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, the figure who had been spying on her stepped out of the shadows. He was a young man of about twenty years with steely gray eyes and platinum blond hair.

"The Dark Lord will be pleased." He said with a smirk as he flicked his onyx black cloak behind him and began pursuing the Unicorn Princess at a leisurely pace.


	11. Chapter 10

**A Sirius Unicorn**

**Chapter 10. The Weeping Willow**

"Athena! Over here!" Sirius shouted, waving his arm as he saw a

flustered looking Athena enter the Griffindor Common Room. Her normally calm and regal face was almost panic-stricken.

Standing up from his designated Marauder's chair, Sirius gave the sixth year boy he had been talking to a pointed look. The boy was quick on the uptake and promptly offered his seat to the 'seventh year mystery', as

Athena was often referred to by anyone other than the Marauders, Dumbledore and McGonagall.

Sirius waited a second in his comfy seat before politely -well as

politely as Sirius could ever be-asking, "Er-hem, Robert, my fine chap, don't you have something better to do than stare at Miss Skydancer all day?"

In embarrassment, the boy, Robert, jerked his head away from staring at the enigma that was Athena, and offering a shy grin quickly left the two alone.

Before Sirius could even turn around to face her, Athena had whispered, "He's found me."

Sirius didn't even bother asking who. "How do you know?"

"One of his Death Eaters was trailing me in the hallways just now. I never saw his face, but everytime I passed a suit of armor, I saw his reflection, just far enough away so I couldn't make out any features, and always in the dark." Her hand, in a fit of nervousness flew to her face, her fingers unconsciously outlining the star shaped mark on her forehead.

Staring blankly into the scarlet rug at her feet, she uttered, "How did he get in?"

Sirius stood from his chair and knelt before her, grasping her hand away from the mark and holding it within his own. "There's no reason to be scared

Athena. Dumbledore is here, not to mention myself and the Marauders. You know we wouldn't let anything happen to one of our own." He let his other hand slowly go to her face and brought it even with his own. Looking into her forest/sky eyes, he softly whispered, "I wouldn't let anything happen to you." It looked as if he was just about to kiss her when-

Athena jerked away. The catatonic state forgotten in the heated moment. her eyes turned icy and she said coolly, as one of royalty is so inclined, "You misunderstand, I'm not afraid for myself. I'm afraid for Hogwarts. I will be responsible for anyone hurt here."

Sirius nearly rolled his eyes in frustration. Sighing, he said, "Right then. Wait here while I get Moony and Prongs. Together, we'll go to Dumbledore's office and alert him to the intruder." He stood from where he knelt and added, "Um, I didn't mean to presume that you were afraid, I- ugh, guess I should have know better."

Athena's hard features softened at seeing the great Sirius Black

fumbling for words. Giving him a reassuring smile, she said, "Maybe we could talk about your.. 'misinterpretation' later?"

Sirius's hurt look quickly passed as the old mischief returned to his eyes, "It's a date." And just like that, he went to find Remus and James.

Athena shook her head in amazement. What was that human saying again? Oh yes, give them an inch, and they'll make it a date. Oh well, she thought, it's not like Aramos is going to see us together. Wait! Where did that come from? Why should Aramos care if some human boy of barely eighteen years was trying to take her on a date? A headache beginning to form, Athena cleared her mind of irrelevant thoughts and focused at the task at hand, her eyes locking onto her ring.

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"I still say we should have taken the brooms out the window of the tower and flown to his office." James whispered as the quartet briskly stepped down the staircase trying to beat it before a particularly nasty section changed floors. They had run into one of James's little fangirl's, Willow Murgon. The girl had delayed them a great deal with her pent up adoration spilling out onto an embarrassed James. Finally, Sirius had told the girl that James would meet her later if she would leave them alone. The girl had cluelessly scampered off, humming a happy little tune.

"And I still say to SHUT UP. Don't say another word until we get there." The boys looked to one another in shock at Athena's display of anger. She was never angry, and when did she learn what shut up meant anyway?

Just when they were about to leave the staircase behind, Lily and Rose came out of nowhere with several books in their hands. The darkness of the hallways prevented either group from seeing each other until it was too late.

As fate would have it, James and Lily took the brunt of the attack. Both were rendered to their knees and all of Lily's books were strewn over the stone floor.

"WHY ARE YOU EVERYWHERE I TURN POTTER!?" Lily screeched as she, James and Rose frantically picked up the overturned tombs.

James waited to return his books until after she allowed him to help her up, then he grinned, "Just lucky I suppose, what's your excuse?"

Lily looked like a fish floundering for a moment before she seethed, "My excuse for what prey tell?"

"For being everywhere I am of course." Lily did not seem to appreciate James's attempted joke. In fact, she looked very much like she was about to strangle him.

Athena was just about to help her before Remus came to the rescue and said calmly, "Look Lily," He politely turned to Rose and acknowledged her as well, "Rose. We're kind of in a hurry. We have to go see Dumbledore right now. So if you two could just-

"Dumbledore's just left for the Ministry." Rose said with barely

contained rage as she glared at the foursome before her.

"WHAT!? HE COULDN'T HAVE!" Athena looked livid. Sirius was almost afraid to stand next to her.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Well, he just did. Madame Pince told us as we were leaving the library. It seems he had some Wizengamot emergency or something to look into."

The four Marauders glanced at each other with worry and a non-vocalized decision was made.

Athena grabbed James's shoulder and whispered urgently in his ear, "This changes everything. We're going to get this done tonight. On our own. Escort these two back to the Commons and meet us by the lake."

James nodded and his entire demeanor changed. In a tight, serious voice, he said to Lily and Rose, "Come on Lily, I'm walking you two back to the Common room."

Rose looked like she was about to dig her heels in like a stubborn mule and argue, but Lily, keeping her gaze on James told her friend in a resigned voice, "Drop it Rose, let's just go."

As the three of them headed back up the way the Marauders had come, Sirius turned to Athena with a questioning look. "When we're outside," she whispered.

Almost at a run, they barged out the heavy oak doors of the castle and made their way to the bank of the inky black lake.

Having reached his limit of being left out of the loop, Sirius grabbed Athena by the shoulders and nearly yelled, "What the bloody-hell are we DOING!?"

Remus was just about to intervene when Athena roughly pushed Sirius away. In contrast to his emotional outburst, she was a statue of radiant calm and poise.

"We're going to confront this Death Eater and kill him." She said as if she were predicting the forecast.

Remus gaped and Sirius narrowed his eyes in confusion.

Finally, disappointment lacing his words, Sirius said, "You're not the person I thought you were."

"I'm not a person." Athena deadpanned as she scoured the distance, looking for shadows in the dark.

Sirius growled, but Remus put a restraining hand on Sirius and in his rational dialogue explained, "No, you're not a person. What Sirius was trying to say is that-

"We didn't take you for a killer." Sirius finished as he shoved by Remus and walked back up to the Unicorngirl, looking into her face for some hint of the girl he thought he knew and was getting to like.

Athena briefly paused in her searching and looked at the pained young man before her. She rested her hand on his shoulder and said, "Unicorns aren't killers. We're practicalists. We kill when we have to, not for enjoyment. Think of what would happen if this Death Eater reports back to Voldemort that Wormtail's findings were true? Voldemort might go so far as a full scale attack on Hogwarts. Many innocent students would die, all because we let one evil man go back to his dark master." She paused, brushing away some of Sirius's ebony locks. "I couldn't live with myself if that happened, and I don't think you or Remus could either."

"Ah-hem," Remus broke the two from their moment and said, "Maybe there's another way. Why don't we just incarcerate him until Dumbledore gets back?"

Athena shook her head, "We don't know how long he's going to take. It's too risky."

Sirius's eyes brightened and smacked himself in the forehead mumbling, "I should have thought of this sooner!" He turned to his puzzled companions and said in excitement, "James learned from his father how to summon the Order of the Phoenix. If we can incapacitate this Death Eater and then drag him just past the Hogwarts gates, we can get the Order to disapparate him away. They can use him to extract secrets about Voldemort and his forces!"

"One problem with that," a cold voice said from the shadows, making all three Marauders jump. The man stepped into their range of vision. He wore a black cloak with the hood up. However, long blonde, almost white hair was visible. The man had his hand around James's neck with his other hand holding a wand to James's face. James appeared to be in some sort of trance and gave no notice of his surroundings, or the fact that his life was in danger. The man sneered at their anxious faces, "James here won't be able to summon anything."

Sirius glared daggers at the man, every muscle in his frame tensing as he snarled, "Lucius" with such vehemence that both Athena and Remus grabbed him for fear he would charge the man and jeopardize their friend's life. But, Sirius was more James's friend than perhaps anyone else could ever be and knew the consequences of provoking a madman like Lucius better than most, so instead of tackling the Death Eater like he wanted, Sirius grounded out, "What do you want Malfoy?"

Lucius Malfoy seemed to enjoy the look of absolute rage on Sirius's face as he said in his cold, mocking voice, "Temper temper Black. Wouldn't want some spell to slip on your friend here. Because that is what you call him. Isn't it? A friend? Well, as much as I'd love to reunite you with your little blood traitor, I'm afraid I can't. Not unless you give me two things."

"Greedier than ever I see."

"Hmm...maybe I should just give him his own wand and tell him to kill himself? You know I wouldn't hesitate Black." Still in a trance, James slowly reached into his robes and drew out his wand.

Sirius nearly choked, "Wait!"

"I knew you'd see things my way." Lucius grinned and concentrated for a second. James lowered his wand and stood motionless as before. "I'll let you get back to your filthy traitorous existence if you give me the Unicorn and allow us to escape unaccompanied."

"Not bloody likely you bloody son-of-a-

"I'll do it." Athena suddenly stepped in front of Lucius and lowering her wand, continued, "But you have to release James from the Imperious first."

Lucius glared at Athena for a second, and then silently lifted the spell off of James. Just as Sirius was about to rush to his friend's aid, Lucius gave a wicked smile and yelled, "EXPELIARMUS!" at James. At the close range of the spell, James was lifted off his feet and flew through the air to land heavily on his back. Sirius immediately whipped out his wand and was about to curse Malfoy, but Lucius had already grabbed Athena and held her firmly in front of him.

"I've kept my end of the bargain, now leave with your still-breathing blood traitor and get out of my sight Black!" Sirius stood rooted to the spot glowering at Malfoy but unable to do anything. Remus knelt beside James and felt for a pulse.

"He's still alive, but we need to get him to Madame Pomphrey quickly." With his wand trained on James's face, Lupin yelled, "ENERVIATE!" James gave a soft groan but made no other movement.

Athena, with her back against Malfoy and her arms pinned to her sides uselessly said, "It's alright Sirius. He won't hurt me. Just go." Sirius was about to argue, but he noticed that she wasn't looking at him. Her gaze rested intently over his shoulder at the gnarled tree between the lake and the huge iron gates.

Sirius gave a quick smirk and then looking back into Malfoy's cold eyes, growled, "Fine. You have what you came for, now go. Just leave me and mine alone you great git."

Malfoy glared at the young man before him. "Whatever you two are playing at won't work. The Dark Lord has trained me himself.." With his own words to reassure himself, Malfoy retreated from the three remaining Marauders. He made sure to keep Athena between himself and Sirius.

As he dragged her backward toward the gate, Lucius whispered in her ear, "The Dark Lord will be so pleased to see you, your highness." The mocking ring to his voice was gratingly evident. "You're all he ever talks about since he killed your dam."

Athena struggled to ignore the nauseating nearness of him and his taunting and concentrated on her surroundings, making sure that she struggled against him just enough to guide him in the direction she wanted.

Lucius appeared oblivious to her intentions as he continued, "Perhaps he may even take a fancy to your new...disguise." He laughed at his own joke and then sneered with contempt, his eyes falling on Sirius, "It appears others have at any rate." His voice lost it's mockery and became bitter, seethingly so. "How disgusting that one of such noble, pureblood can stoop to blood traitors and creatures. If Orion only knew-" WHOOMP!!!

Both Athena and Lucius were knocked to the ground by the force of the Whomping Willow's branch. Having been the recipient of the blow, Lucius temporarily had the wind knocked out of him. Athena took the second to yank the ring off her finger.

The next thing Sirius saw as he and Remus sprinted toward the flaying tree was the brilliant whiteness of Athena's true form as she gave a rib-cracking kick to Lucius.

However, as Lucius very satisfyingly flew back unconscious, Athena was hit from the side by a wayward branch. It lifted her up, in all her Unicorn splendor and hurled her fifty feet away to land in a crumpled silver heap.

Sirius and Remus gave each other a quick nod and simultaneously turned to the enraged tree and shouted, "IMMOBULUS!" Immediately, the tree quieted and the stillness of the night took over. The sudden change from violence to silence left the two boys immobile like the Willow for a second.

A weak cry from behind them shattered their reverence. "Hello! A Death Eater is just lying there with his wand still in his hand! Is either of you going to maybe stun him or something?" James limped over to them, his hand shakily grasping his wand, but his eyes their usual playful self.

Sirius gave his Marauding brother a bear hug and with his bark-like laughter ringing through the pierced stillness, exclaimed, "No Prongsie! We wanted you to feel like you didn't completely mess up tonight, so we saved the easy task for you mate!"

Remus just laughed and cast a resounding, "STUPEFY!" on the prone Malfoy before Sirius and James could forget to in their banter.

"It's good to have you back Prongs." Remus said with a smile as he too gave James a brotherly hug.

"Nice to be back. It was a nightmare being trapped by Malfoy's

Imperious. I felt like I was swimming through tar and being forced to eat too much treacle tart at the same time." James shook himself out of his wandering thoughts and turned toward Malfoy. "Come on Remus, let's get this trash out of here." Remus and James both elbowed Sirius and then left, both laughing their heads off.

Sirius put his hand to his head in the classic, 'why me dear lord'

gesture and raised his wand shouting, "ACCIO ATHENA'S RING, ACCIO ATHENA'S WAND, ACCIO ATHENA'S CLOTHES!" Immediately, all of the aforementioned belonging zoomed into Sirius's outstretched hands as he ran over to the unconscious Unicorn.

Upon reaching her, Sirius slid to his knees and grasped the beautiful ring, pondering how to transform her. He knew the ring was the cause of her transformation, but he wasn't exactly sure how it worked. He tried just placing it in contact with her white body, but that had no effect. It did affect him however when his fingers accidentally grazed the silk of her coat. He couldn't help himself. It was softer than the plushest velvet and more radiant than new fallen snow. He stroked her neck, enjoying the feel of her coat and marveling at the silver silk hair of her wavy mane.

Tenderly, his fingers danced around the star shaped mark that made up her forehead. Right in the center of the glowing star was her horn. Sirius almost felt too afraid to touch it. It looked like one huge diamond carved to perfection into a spiraling delicate horn. He gently ran his hand over it, wondering at the feeling of something so beautiful, yet so powerful.

He withdrew his hand and gazed at her horselike head for a moment, taking in its delicate beauty. He didn't know a lot about horses, but he knew her face was beautiful. He felt he would have known it were he blind. Shaking his head at his own corny thoughts, he gazed down to her hoofs, the gold of her hoofwall catching his eye as it reflected off the moon's silvery rays.

Going with instinct, he pressed the ring against one of her four golden hooves. Suddenly, a blindingly bright glow of white energy encased Athena as her body instantaneously transformed into her human guise.

Sirius's eyes widened to saucers as he realized that her clothes didn't transform onto her during the change. Feeling that their was something profoundly wrong in violating a Unicorn, particularly her, he overted his eyes and picked up his wand. He silently cast the transfiguration spell to transform her school robe into a blanket, a spell taught to all first years before the final Quidditch Match, and laid the blanket over her pale, fragile looking human skin.

Trying to convince himself that he did not just take a peek at her, he grabbed her wand and put it in his pocket and then wrapped his arms around the bundle and hoisted her up. By this time, Remus and James were heading back toward him.

"We safely deposited Malfoy to the Order. It's strange how he could've gotten in here, the Order plans on investigating that. Hopefully, he was the only one." Remus said as he helped James who still appeared to be suffering on his right leg.

"We already know he wasn't. Wormtail, Narsissa, Snape, Regulus and god knows how many others are already here, and I'm sure they helped him." Sirius said as the three of them began walking toward the looming castle.

James smirked at Padfoot and the unconscious Athena and then shook his head.

Sirius huffed, "Spit it out Jamsie-kins. It's not polite to laugh inside your head at your bestest buddy as he's playing knight-in-shining-armor."

James and Remus both laughed, and finally, when James could breathe again, he said, "You do know you could have just enerviated her right?"

Sirius's eyes widened like a five year old's when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Finally, he managed an, "Oh yea."

James and Remus were just about to give him some more grief when Sirius said in a voice more worthy of himself, "But where would be the fun in that?"

The three laughed all the way up to the hospital wing where a non-too-thrilled Madame Pomphrey took James and Athena and kicked a reluctant-to-leave Sirius and Remus out for the night.

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"Oh James! I'm sooo glad you're ok! Is there anything I can do?" Athena abruptly awoke as a high pitched shrill erupted in her sensitive ears. Wincing in pain, Athena was forced to endure the horrific shrill once again as it continued cooing, "When I heard where you were, I immediately came right up. Do you want me to get you some water, or maybe some breakfast? Maybe you want a message?"

At these last words, Athena's eyes flew open and she witnessed a red-faced James shying away from an excited girl. She recognized the fan as the same from the night before, Willow Murgon. Willow had her skinny hand clasped on James's forearm in an attempt to begin messaging. James looked as though he would die from embarrassment.

Hearing a soft, "Humph" from across the room, Athena turned her head and saw Lily Evans standing in the doorway to the hospital wing staring intently at James and Willow with a soft frown marring her face. If Athena didn't know better, she'd almost say that Lily looked jealous.

James apparently hadn't noticed the red-haired beauty in his presence as he gave a sigh and quietly told Willow, "I'm sorry, but I'm in love with someone else. I always have been, and I always will be. Now, please go away. If you're looking for someone to idolize, go rub Gideon's shoulders, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Willow looked at James in shock for a moment and then began crying. When she saw her weeping had no comforting effect on him, she huffed and ran out the room, her tears making a soft dripping noise on the hard, clean floor.

Lily stood aside as the girl stormed past her. James followed Willow's wake until his gaze settled on Lily. He was about to say something when Athena turned to him and whispered, "Shush, let her talk." James frowned at Athena for a second before returning to his Goddess. After a few seconds, of neither of them uttering a sound nor moving a muscle, Lily spoke, "I just heard that you were in the hospital wing. Dumbledore, uh, he, um," their gazes were locked together and it seemed some spell was forming over the two, making it impossible for them to tear their eyes away from each other.

Lily licked her lips and went on, her voice a little higher, "He wanted me to make sure you were alright for our duties tonight. He said something about a Death Eater being in the school." Lily slowly walked up to James's bed, their eyes never wavering. She continued in a small voice, "You should have told me last night, I could have helped you all."

"I didn't want to put you in danger Lily." James's voice cracked as he said her name. Athena thought it probably due to his lack of uttering her first name. Lily seemed to notice too. She swallowed and said, "I can handle myself."

James's lips formed upward in a smile and he said quietly, "I know you can Lilyflower." Before she had a chance to get ruffled at his nickname, he added, "Now tell me why you had all those books on Werewolves last night?"


	12. Chapter 11

**A Sirius Unicorn**

**Chapter 11. Eclipse of Reason**

Lily stood motionless for a second in shock while James calmly looked at her waiting for an explanation. Finally, appearing rather nervous, her voice an octave above its usual pitch, Lily squeaked, "I, uh, well that is to say, Rose and I, ugh...were in the Commons the other night, doing that Potions essay on the Drought, and we heard this noise. It sounded sort of like a wolf, but different, so we feared a werewolf and have been trying to research about them." By the end of her little speech, Lily almost seemed to believe her own story.

Athena scoffed. "Yea right Lily. Why don't you just tell James the truth? You owe him and all of us that much for saving you last night."

Lily turned her glare on Athena, her green eyes ablaze, and hissed, "Like I said before, Sky-dancer, I can handle myself. You and your boys need to just butt out of everyone's business. And I only came here this morning because Dumbledore asked me to." James' face fell and he looked away disappointed.

Athena saw this and frowned. Her emphatic senses were screaming out to her the plight of James' breaking heart. A powerful rage swept over her. "What is YOUR problem Lily! Can't you see that this smart, funny, handsome, sweet boy LOVES you! I've never seen him be anything but generous and kind to you, and you treat him like dirt." Lily's face turned a shade redder, either out of embarrassment or rage, Athena couldn't tell. "And now you're lying to him and saying that you checked out ALL those books just to RESEARCH! Tell him the truth, -that you suspect Remus of being a Lycan." Lily gasped and James spun around betrayed to gape at Athena. In a kinder voice, one reminiscent of the golden notes of wisdom and resonance synonymous with that of all Unicorns, Athena whispered to James, "If you love her so much, than be truthful as well and respect her intelligence."

Something seemed to click in James' mind and he gave an earnest nod to the Unicorn Princess before turning resolute to Lily. "Lily, maybe you should have a seat, we could be here a while."

Lily, instead of sitting, backed away. "NO! I don't care what you have to say to me Potter! Just leave me alone and tell your snotty friend to stay out of my business and the heck away from me!" She was very red and near tears. She looked about ready to bolt, but suddenly, her panic ceased. She sniffled, wiped her eyes, and said in her calm, commanding Head girl voice, "You're taking the third and fourth floors tonight. Don't be late." And with that, she whirled around and quickly fled the hospital wing.

Just as the doors closed behind her, Sirius, Guinevere and Remus entered. By the looks on their faces, it was obvious that they had encountered the distraught Head girl on their way in. All three gave James an exasperated look.

"Hey! It wasn't me this time! It was Athena. I solemnly swear!" James exclaimed, giving the two boys the sacred Marauder vow. He then perused his attire and used his wand to transfigure his hospital clothes into a t-shirt and jeans.

Athena grew jealous at his clothes and did the same for herself as Sirius came up to her.

She looked up to him, glad to see him after all the trouble they'd had yesterday, but something was wrong. His normally mischievous gray eyes were glum and a frown marred his face.

"What's wrong Sirius?"

"What?" He seemed startled by the question. He was obviously worried about something. "Oh, nothing. How you feeling?" And naturally, he would deny it.

James gingerly arose from his bed and ambled over to his best friend, slinging his arm over Sirius' shoulder. "Come on Paddy. What's up? You look like you've just had a visit to the vet."

Instead of retaliating, Sirius just shrugged. "It's really nothing."

Remus, looking antsy, spoke up, "Well come on, let's get going guys. Madam Pomphrey will keep you two another week if we don't get out of here pronto." Athena looked sympathetically at the prematurely lined face of Remus. The poor boy had to spend so much time here, for something he had absolutely no control over. She hoped to the Goddesses that Lily and her thorned friend wouldn't rat on him.

Guinevere sensed Lupin's unease as well. She ran a tender hand through his sandy locks and let it drop into his hand with a reassuring squeeze. She was about to go over to her friend's bedside, when Remus cupped her face and gave her a soft kiss. It lingered some time before Guinevere finally came up for air and smiled adoringly at her boyfriend. Athena couldn't help but smile too. As sickeningly sweet as their display had just been, she couldn't help but warm in the love they radiated.

Guenivere finally came up to Athena's bed and offered her a hand up. "How are you feeling? I couldn't get much from Remy, but it sounded like you four fought a death eater last night?"

Sirius perked up at Guen's comment and said incredulously, "Remy?!" A truly evil grin erupted across his face. He swiped back his long black hair and said in a squeaky, high pitched shrill, "Oh, Remy, darling! How smashing that we finally know what to call you!" He started advancing on the red-faced Remus, puckering up his lips and making highly noxious smacking noises.

Everyone broke out in laughter at the scene, except Remus of course. Guinevere shot him an apologetic smile, but it didn't deter her from laughing at Sirius's smacking.

"Padfoot, is THAT how you kiss? No wonder you can't hold onto a girl for very long," Remus managed to say with a straight face. Sirius's laughter immediately died and a pout formed.

"Sorry Moony. My kissing methods are confidential and highly sought after. If you want some pointers, it'll cost you some of your Honeyduke's chocolate." Smirking at his friend, Sirius added, "But practice is free of charge."

A look of comical horror adorned Remus's face. He theatrically panicked and reached for Guinevere. The two made a mad dash out of the hospital wing in mock terror.

James watched the two go and laughed. "Wow, outdone by Moony. I think you're losing your touch Pads."

Sirius hung his head in shame and sighed. He slowly looked up and wiped away a nonexistent tear. Giving a rather large, fake sniff, he said, keeping with the facade, "I'm so proud of our little Wolfy Prongs. He's immatured so much under our careful tutelage. Dare I say? The student has exceeded the master?"

"No you may not Padfoot, seeing as I'm the master, and no one has yet to exceed me."

"I don't know either of you." Athena laughed, swinging off the bed. She did it a bit too fast though and felt a little dizzy as she stood.

Both James and Sirius were there to offer a steadying hand to her at the same time.

Before she could thank either of them, however, Madam Pomphrey's matronly squawk could be heard emitting from her office, "YOU TWO BETTER NOT BE LEAVING! I'VE YET TO GIVE YOU YOUR LAST PEPPERUPS!"

The three Marauders made disgusted faces at the thought of the vile tasting potion. They made a scramble for the door and made it out just as Pomphrey's white medical hat could be seen peeking out her office door.

"That was a close call," Sirius said as they strolled down the hall toward their Commons.

Athena saw something up ahead that made her gasp. "Speaking of close, is that who I think it is?" She gestured up ahead of them at a small alcove near the library veiled in shadow.

Both boys had to squint to see what she had easily discerned, but once they found what she was talking about, their disbelief was evident. "That's just wrong," James said. He looked like he was about to puke.

Sirius, a little on the green side as well, said, "Let me please state again for what is probably the thousandth time, I have been and have disowned my family, AND, she's not directly related to me anyway!"

"Maybe if we're very quiet, they won't notice us passing?" Athena said as she tried to look away.

"By the looks of it, they're not going to notice much."

"Jamsie has a point. So, if we could PLEASE press on, I have to go to the loo and scratch out my eyeballs." With that, Sirius grabbed a hold of the gaping James and Athena and dragged them past the small dark alcove where none other than Narrsissa Black and Severus Snape stood, rapped up in each other, making out.

Once they were safely away from the scene, Athena looked at Sirius. "I'm really trying to understand your ways, but all this saliva exchange and groping looks really disgusting."

Sirius put a comforting arm around her shoulders and said, "Don't worry. It doesn't usually look that nasty. That was just because it was Snivilly and Sissy." He paused, a thought lighting up his eyes. "Hang on, Sissy is betrothed to lovely Lucius, whom we incarcerated last night. You think they're celebrating? How would they know?"

"How does anyone know anything that goes on here? Secrets are like giant announcement banners these days. Who knows?" James glanced at Athena. "Hey Silver, hmm…that sounds kinda weird, guess it'll take some getting used to…anyway, when's slave day. Whatdaya say?"

"Oh right, I'd nearly forgotten, thanks for reminding me." James hit his forehead.

"You mean that I could of gotten out of this if I had just kept my big mouth shut?"

"Don't be ridiculous mate, we all know your mouth is far too big to keep shut."

Athena made an attempt to wipe the smirk off her face before she apologized. "Sorry James…well," she thought of the best way to do what she had intended. "I think it was for Sunday, but if you're so eager to do it, I was going to have you leave Lily alone for the rest of the day."

Both boys turned in shock to Athena. James looked confused. "The ENTIRE day?" She gave him a nod. "Why ever would you want me to do that?" He shot Sirius a sideways look. "Maybe Remus was right. If all of them keep coming over to me."

"That was one time! I'm sure Athena doesn't mean this like that." It was Sirius's turn to look perplexed. "Err…you don't fancy Prongsie, do you?" Athena almost laughed at his whiney tone.

"No," She turned to James. "Truth be told, I originally adopted the slavery deal so that I could get you and Lily together."

"Well, I didn't need to be your slave for that!"

"Would you have left Lily alone for any given length of time if you weren't?"

Sirius interrupted. "If Quidditch were involved."

Athena rolled her eyes. "Not counting Quidditch or Marauder outings." Both boys opened their mouths, "And yes, that includes pranking."

They closed their mouths and James seemed to mull this over. "Alright. Yes, I suppose you have a point. So…that's it? Just leave my Lilykins alone? Doesn't seem very effective. Considering that when I leave her alone, and she ALWAYS avoids me, we'll never see each other."

Sirius nodded his head. "Prongs, rare as it may be, does have a point."

"Doesn't matter does it? He's my slave, and this is what I'm going to have him do."

James gave her a puppy dog pout and whined, "But it's cruel and unusual punishment."

Athena grinned. "No, that would be rooming with Lily and Rose."

"You think he'll be able to do it?" Sirius asked Athena later that day as the two relaxed under the oak beside the lake. The autumn chill in the air made them both wrap their robes a little tighter around themselves. Athena noticed that the great tree shading them was beginning to change it leaves. Hints of orange, yellow and red were evident. They glowed in the early afternoon sunlight and stood out against the green. If she were home now, her herd would probably be starting the long journey toward Autumn Acres about now. She wondered how they were faring.

Turning to look at Sirius, she thought of Aramos. Another pang of loss hit her. They'd be racing the wind, ducking the falling leaves and each other on their way to the Acres. The homesickness threatening to consume her, she answered Sirius's question, "I think…No, I'll bet, that James is more than up to the task."

"Hmm…betting against my own best friend on whether he can win the girl of his dreams? Sure, I'll take that bet."

Athena looked over to the lake and noticed some dark clouds gathering. An ominous feeling was heavy in the air. "You never told me what was bothering you this morning." At Sirius's lost look, she went on. "In the hospital wing, something was obviously troubling you. After all, you never manage to look that…serious…for very long."

Sirius dropped the book he had been skimming and sighed. His gaze turned toward the thunderhead as well and his eyes mirrored the approaching storm as he said, "It was when you were unconscious last night." Athena snorted.

"You're not going to get all mushy on me are you? I'm fine now, and Malfoy didn't even hurt me, it was that awful tree."

"Oh no! Not that. It's just that…" He stopped. Were her eyes mistaken, or was Sirius Black actually at a loss for words?

"What?"

"When I saw you last night. In your real skin, I guess I finally just came to the realization."

"And that realization would be?" Her heart was a traitorous beast indeed. It's pounding could probably be heard all the way in the Black Forest.

"That we're too different for anything to ever happen between us…as much as I think I would have wanted it to."

A great wave of disappointment washed over Athena and she was momentarily rendered speechless. Rejection was not something drilled into a Unicorn Princess. Well, actually any Unicorn for that matter. On a whole, they were a very vain race. She swallowed her hurt. "Oh. I see."

Sirius looked pained. He turned away from her and made to get up. "I'm sorry."

Athena shook her head. "No no. Sit down silly. We can still hang together right?" She hated the sound of her own pleading, but it was there non-the-less.

Sirius gave a hollow grin and nodded, retaking his seat. He pointed to the storm, but his eyes remained on her as he said, "We should probably head back inside anyway. Knowing James, he'll probably be on life support by now from his lack of Lily, and that storm looks bad."

"You go ahead. I retain my position, James will get through this spectacularly, you'll see. I want to see the rain."

Sirius stood up and looked down on her. "Can you even catch a cold?"

"Guess we'll find out."

"Don't go getting caught by anymore Death Eaters ok? I want to get something from my winning bet."

"What's the pay up?"

"Whatever we agree to when we have a winner?"

"Sure. See you in DADA."

"Don't be late, Regulus has been complaining to Slughorn how lax McGinnis has been on his late students. The little bugger." Athena nodded and watched him go until he disappeared behind the heavy oak doors of the castle.

Athena watched the lake for a few more minutes until the first drops began to fall. She got up to run to the castle, but the Dark Forest caught her eye. She knew it wasn't long until McGinnis's class started, but she really felt like running. She felt like hurting. No, she shook her head, that wasn't right. She just felt hurt.

Blowing off her Defense class, Athena ran to the forest and slipped off her ring. She eagerly banished all her belongings and began tearing through the trees, her quick strides becoming longer and longer as she galloped.

It was raining full force now and soon enough, her whole coat was soaked. She didn't stop though. As the ground turned to mud, she continued to plow on.

So lost was she in her running, that she didn't notice the black figure until it was too late.

As they both lay there, the wind knocked out of Athena and the legs knocked out from the Thestral, Athena began to apologize. "Forgive me. I wasn't paying attention and-

"Athena I presume?" The Thestral's deep, imposing voice rattled in her head and she had to repress wincing.

"Yes. I suppose you're Naomi?" He nodded airily. Athena gave a stiff bow and leered. "Not a very intimidating name is it?"

Naomi looked less than thrilled at her. "I don't need an intimidating name," he nimbly rose to his feet and glared down at her. "Do I?"

Athena, a little less smug, scrambled up and shook off the lingering mud on her otherwise luminous white coat. Nonplused, she replied, "No, I don't suppose you do."

Naomi looked ready to explode at her insolence, but he shook it off with a smirk. "You're very amusing your highness. Now follow me, I'll not let it be said that I didn't respect Arabella's last wishes." He started away from her but halted when he saw she wasn't going anywhere. "What is it now?" He was not shy about hiding his annoyance.

"I'm not heading back just now."

"Oh, and where do you think you're going? You do realize that every hit Wizard, snake, Death Eater, and the Dark Lord himself are after you?"

"Are they really? Hadn't noticed." Naomi's red eyes glinted rage at her sarcasm.

"Your mother died for you. And this is how you're going to repay her?"

Athena's defiant air deflated for a second and in that moment she truly did look ashamed of herself, but it was short lived as she shook her head and whispered, "I'm sorry, but I have to see my herd. I have to make sure they're ok, and I have to see Aramos."

"So many I's. Tell me, are you normally this self-involved?"

Athena lifted her proud head in anger. "You would speak this way to ME?"

Naomi glared. "So sorry. Please, go on and mess everything up. Don't mind me, the cursed one. What do I know?"

A look of confusion graced Athena's equine features and she couldn't help but ask, "Cursed?"

"You mean to say," Naomi began with surprise, "that you, the royal heir to the throne of the Unicorns, does not no the curse placed upon her own kind?"

At her look of shock, an evil grin broke out on his leathery face and he quickly went on, "Nearly five centuries ago, black Unicorns inhabited the Earth. Have you never questioned why there are none today?" Naomi began to circle Athena, hatred filling his eyes as long kept memories surged forth. "It was all because of love, the love of your mother. When Anikon left her, it tore her apart. Not able to stand the suffering of her only daughter, Alanair had a curse brought upon every Black Unicorn in existence. I was a young colt at the time. Only a century or so, but I remember the cursed day well. A dark fire arose in the pit of my stomach, burning me alive, from the inside out. It burned my flesh till I was left with nothing but the leathery exterior you see before you. Great, painful bones arched out of my withers and spread like a giant canopy over my head. My skin followed the bones portrusal until I felt as though it would tear. I'll never forget the pain of that day, for it lives with me still, it is seen in the redness of a Thestrals' eyes, and felt in are ability to only be seen by those who have witnessed death. For that is what we are- Dead Unicorns walking."

Athena looked in horror at him and slowly backed away. Naomi's evil grin only widened as he mocked, "Does my history bother you my lady?"

Athena attempted to rein in her emotions and as steadily as she could muster said, "I'm sorry, I had no idea."

Naomi gave a humorless laugh. "It matters not to me that you regret, something a Unicorn fails at exceedingly well…No. I don't want your pity. I'm well over that day. Arabella has already made up to me and mine for her mother's wickedness and thus my allegiance is secure. But you will heed me when I say we're going back to the castle now."

Athena stood motionless for a moment. Her statuesque splendor seemed to attract the last of the sun's rays as it peeked out through the gray clouds. Tossing her head, her silvery mane glistening and her diamond horn glowing threateningly, Athena snorted. "I think not. Twas a pleasure my lord." Before he could think to stop her, Athena had bolted from the clearing and sped off into the woods.

Naomi could have followed her, but he was too annoyed by her juvenile behavior. Sorry Arabella, he thought to himself with a sigh. At least he had tried.


End file.
